Huntress's Tale
by Amanda the Huntress
Summary: My name is Huntress. I am one of seven, living in peace in the vast Overworld. Now it's all about to change. Herobrine has returned to our world, but that isn't all. The first evil, behind every terror known to us, is about to make one final strike. We have only one chance. But you don't know the full story yet. Let me start from the beginning... (1st in A MINECRAFT TALE series)
1. Entry One

_Notch, forgive us for what we have done. _

_We did not know this would happen. We didn't want it to turn out this way. _

_Please, help us make it right. _

_Somebody help us._

* * *

**Date: year 10181 Villager calender, the first day of summer**

**Hiding in my bunker**

All right, He's up there and I don't have much time. A lot has happened and I don't have much time to write this down. I'm safe in my obsidian-lined bunker for now, as deep underground as I can be, but frankly, I'm sure that it's only a matter of time before He finds me, and even obsidian walls won't help me.

It's been a long, hard fight, and it's only just started. My castle is burning, the village at the Temple is destroyed, it's people massacred, and it's all our fault. I didn't even believe it myself when I saw Him, but now I know painfully well just how powerful this so-called fairy tale is.

Don't ever laugh at the name of Herobrine. This isn't a joke, and this isn't another lame story to scare children with. The danger is real and I don't know if anything will survive when this is over. Notch, I barely know what's going on!

My name is Huntress. I know, it doesn't seem much of a name, but it's what I chose for myself and it's what I go by. Just, please bear with me. I don't know how long I'll last now. I'm being chased, and I want my story to be told. Remembered, somehow. I've got to write quickly. But blast, where do I start?

I know that there are only seven of my kind- myself and six others. We're all close friends that have no idea where we came from or how we got here. We chose our own names, and built our own estates and cities. We were taught everything we know by the Villager race, who calls our kind Sons of Steve, or Steves for short, after the old race that lived here before we came.

It's a long story on how I ended up down here in this bunker. I hope I have time.

It began with a simple expedition into a deep cave. I was with two of my companions, Dragon and Wolf. We ran into an ancient mineshaft that cut through the cave, and the real adventure began.

There is one thing that you need to know about our kind- we do not have to fear death of any sort. You see, we have discovered that when we die, we reappear somewhere safe completely unharmed. A bit shaken, perhaps, and missing all of our things, but quite alive. We are also able to carry things without using our hands. I'm told it's called an 'inventory', something usually not seen in Overworld creatures.

But I digress.

So, a trip down a dark, monster-infested mineshaft was nothing frightening. If anything, we were glad we found it. There are many treasures to be found down there. Ancient weapons, rare metals and stones, magic items... anything hard to come by could be found in these mineshafts.

We were not disappointed. Dragon uncovered an old chest filled to the brim with old, crumbling manuscripts. We all got a good look at them- they were careful instructions on how to create a Nether portal, and things that could be found in the Nether. It was decided that Dragon would hold on to the manuscripts, and when a portal was built, we would all go.

So help me Notch, I wish we had never found those manuscripts.

The Villagers were wary of us going to such a place- something we once thought was mere legend- but no one had anything against the trip. The priest at my village did grow quiet as I told him, but he gave me no sign of refusing to let us go.

I wish he had. I wish we had known sooner. By the Void, we should have known. Someone should have known. Why is it that things that happen so long ago cease to be truth and become myth, and then fairytale? If only someone had told us.

Instead, we learned too late after it was done.

It was mid-spring when I found out.

Someone was pounding on the door to my forge. It was early afternoon in my estate, and the bright sun streamed through the small windows high up on the stone brick walls. I put down my hammer, calling for whoever it was to come in.

"A message from the priest," a familiar voice said, and a white-robed Villager librarian poked his head in. I set the hammer upright on the anvil.

"What is it?"

"He says to come immediately to the church tower. Something is wrong. It's about the Son of Steve, Dragon." he said, and left.

Blinking, I shucked off my leather forging apron and left my work where it was on the anvil. The priest didn't summon me when my friends were in trouble. It was our own job to look after one another. Stepping out of the forge, I came out into the bright sun and went off into my manor to clean up.

A few minutes later, I was climbing the ladder to the second story of the church tower in fresh clothes with a bow slung across my back. I never left home unarmed.

"Have a seat," the priest said curtly, motioning to the wooden bench under the table before him. I obediently sat down, and he held up a browned, crumbling manuscript page. "Do you recognize this?" I nodded. These were the very manuscripts we had found in the mineshaft, just a few days ago.

I looked up at the priest, who was rubbing his temple with his free hand and avoiding my eyes. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Sir, what happened?" I asked cautiously, suddenly getting a very bad feeling. The priest sighed.

"Something that we didn't anticipate. You see..." he trailed off, and then cleared his throat. "Something bad has happened. Your friend, we think he opened a Nether portal. Well...You see, there are things in the Nether that we didn't know actually existed. Things that... well, we thought they were old children's tales. That's all we have left of the old histories..." My eyes widened.

"What things are in the Nether? What has happened?" I pronounced each word slowly and carefully. The priest met my hard gaze with his green eyes and took a deep breath, fumbling for a book under his robe. He drew out a thick volume with a leather cover, bound up with a satin ribbon. He untied the ribbon, letting it fall to the tabletop, and opened the book.

"I... I don't know how to tell you this, Huntress," the priest confessed. "I should have known the truth sooner. It is my duty, after all. The truth is, there was something much more dangerous than we expected. Ah, here we are," he said, reaching the desired page and showing me the illustration. "I suppose the best way to explain the situation would be to explain what we believe we are dealing with." I raised one eyebrow, looking at the priest with a gesture of impatience.

"Yes. Herobrine. The one who will get you if you don't eat your vegetables and go to bed when mummy tells you. What about him?" I couldn't keep the mocking undertone out of my voice. The priest's features darkened.

"He is quite real, Huntress," he said in a no-nonsense tone. "You must understand that He is real and now he is here. The most powerful force of evil in all of known history is here, in the Overworld, and we are all in very _real _danger." That shut me up.

"The story I was able to find," the priest explained, "is that Herobrine was imprisoned in the Nether. I do not know exactly what for or when, but the Nether was meant to be a place no one ever intruded upon. He was- _is-_ the younger brother of Notch, and is very, very powerful. The banishment was supposedly for a treachery he committed against Notch's creation. The destruction he caused, according to the tale, was incredible. Huntress, I am sorry. I didn't know, and I should have. Your friend..." He trailed off again.

"No." I whispered. Then louder, "No! What happened to Dragon? Tell me!"

"He opened the portal, Huntress. We found it in the ruins..."

"Ruins!" I burst out. "By Notch, _what happened?_" My breath was quickening.

"Let me speak!" The priest snapped. "Now, I only have the report from the trading party that was going to the village near where your friend lives. The crystal city, is it?" I nodded. We had called it that for all the glass and diamond he used to make it. It was beautiful. "According to the reports, I think the chain of events went like this: Dragon opened the portal at the edge of his city. As soon as it was open, Herobrine appeared, released from his prison, along with massive amounts of energy. The parts of the city we were able to explore nearest to the portal have been transmuted to Nether materials. Knowing Dragon, he probably fought Herobrine, but we do not know what has become of him after that. Both Dragon and Herobrine are nowhere to be found. The crystal city is utterly destroyed."

I sat in silence, my hands folded tightly before my face. I couldn't believe it.

"You saw Herobrine?" I prompted. The priest shook his head.

"No."

"Then how did you know it was him?" I cried. I was suddenly scared, and very desperate. If there was any chance that it was anything else, anything at all, that did this to Dragon and his city, I had to know. There was no monster in the Overworld that could defeat us, but the brother of Notch... a god, when it came down to it...

No. It had to be something else. It had to be something we were prepared to deal with. Not this- anything but this.

"This is how we know," the priest answered, shattering my hopes. He handed me a clean sheet of parchment that had a few words written on it in neat script.

_Beware, people of Notch. The Overworld is mine. _

"This was found," the priest continued, "written on a sign outside the city. One of the members of the party copied it down. No mere beast could have written something like that. After this disaster, it can only mean one thing."

"Herobrine is back," I said, defeated. The page slipped out of my hand and fluttered slowly to the ground as I slumped on the tabletop, head in my hands. "What have we done?"

Things went downhill after that. One by one, my friends were notified, and one by one, I lost contact with them. I do not know if they were captured, or if they have simply gone into hiding. I have no way of knowing, especially not with the bind I'm in. I prayed daily to Notch that Dragon was okay. Alive, at least.

During the last few days of spring, a signpost appeared at the edge of my estate.

_Surrender or die. _

I knew exactly what I had to do.

Drumming up my courage, I packed up the things I would need and put on my armor, riding into the village with purpose. The priest saw me from atop the church tower and came rushing down to see me.

"I thought you were taken!" He exclaimed as he caught me in a tight hug after I had dismounted. I returned the hug, grateful. "Thank Notch, you're all right!"

"I need your help," I said when we at last drew apart. The priest nodded.

"What do you need?"

"The tale. I need a copy of that tale you found." I said. The priest got a haunted look in his eyes.

"Huntress," he began in a warning tone, "What are you planning to do? You can't seriously be thinking of going after Him?" I shook my head vigorously.

"Aether, no!" I answered forcefully. "I need information. You saw the signs- I can't stay here. I'm going to my castle near the Great Temple to learn what I can." The priest sighed with relief and nodded.

"I can give you the tale."

Moments later, I sat in the village library, scanning page after page that the priest put in front of me. When the sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon, I put the manuscript away in my inventory and stood to face the priest. I took a deep breath, unsure if I even had enough courage to say this out loud.

"Sir," I began, "There is something I need you to promise me." The priest looked up.

"Absolutely. What is it?" he asked.

"If Hero- if He comes here, I need you to do exactly as he says. If that means telling him where I went, fine. I don't want him to hurt anyone. He _will _come here, sooner or later. If you do what he asks, maybe he'll leave you alone." Or maybe not. But I left that part unsaid- we both knew the possibilities. The priest paled.

"Huntress, don't-"

"Do it! Anything can happen. Anything at all. I want to make sure that you have a chance. You have to promise me."

"But he could kill you!" The priest cried. "He could trap you in a place you might never escape from! Huntress, I can't-" I didn't let him finish.

"He'll kill you if you don't." My voice was low. The priest stopped. "Of course he'll kill me. But I will always come back. You won't. I don't know why that is- Notch knows that isn't fair, but it just is. If he kills me, fine. I'll just wake up safe and sound somewhere else. I don't want you to die." My voice was shaking. Fine if he kills me? Who was I kidding? Still, I was scared for the Villagers. I really didn't want them to die. I had to make the priest promise this. Slowly, he nodded.

"I swear it," he said tightly. "And I'll let the others know. I just want to protect you."

"And I want to protect you, which means you can't defend me." I said. Then I hugged the priest. "Thank you."

"Take care, Huntress," the priest said in my ear. "Notch's blessings on your trip." We parted.

"And good luck!" he called as I left.

Then I was mounted and riding hard for the castle Ember, going on through the night.

I had no idea what kind of war I was about to get into.

I need to sleep. I'll keep writing when I wake.

* * *

**At last, I begin the official rewrite! For all of you fans of A Minecraft Tale, here is the official reboot to fill in missing pieces and improve the general story itself. Trust me, it needed it, especially now that I am writing in the other installments to the universe such as Chronicle, the prequel, and the mysterious upcoming sequel. **

**Sooo... To my new readers... What do you think so far? Have I drawn you in? What has become of Dragon? Is he alive? What's going to happen to Huntress as she bravely goes out to find answers? Leave a favorite, follow, and/or a worthwhile review, and I promise I will update soon! Until then, I will see you next chapter! **


	2. Entry Two

**Date: Year 10181 Villager calender, second day of summer**

**Hiding in my bunker**

I didn't sleep well last night. It's tight down here in this bunker, and dark too. The only light comes from a few redstone lamps, one in each room, and there aren't many rooms. I designed this to be as small as possible so it would be harder to detect, but I need air. Badly. It just isn't safe to go out yet.

I'm having nightmares now, after what's happened. Bad ones, ones that are too vivid to be any ordinary dream. They're coming from Him. I know it. Ever since... well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was a hard ride through the night to get to Ember. The rain beat down on me, and the wind buffeted my cloak. By the time the sun rose, I was nearly sliding from my saddle. It was truly a relief to see the castle walls around the bend.

Opening the gate took three tries. At Ember, I had a system rigged up so that the gates could only be opened by hitting a button up on the gatehouse with an arrow. I was so tired that my arrows flew first to the left, and then to the right of the button. Finally, the gates slid into their housing, allowing me to pass.

I was in a daze that entire day at Ember. Working on instinct, I put Stardust, my horse, out into the pastures to rest, and then I went about putting away my things for a long stay. When I tripped over my own feet for the fifth time, I decided it was time to stop. Stripping off my damp cloak and heavy armor, I collapsed into bed while the sun was still high.

It was late morning before I woke again. The eastern sun was streaming in the window, straight into my eyes. I groaned, still stiff from my long ride. Cursing how out of shape I was, I somehow convinced my sorry saddle-sore bum to get up and get busy. There was no time to waste.

My cloak and armor were still on the floor. The armor was dry, and thank Notch, free of rust as well, but my cloak was still heavy with moisture. I tossed it aside and donned my mail shirt and iron leg armor, and went downstairs for my extra cloak. A weatherproofed one. I hoped that the chilly late spring rains would end soon, and then I wouldn't need it. Snatching an apple, I went outside to the Vault.

The Vault, just so you know, is the largest concentration of valuables and weapons I have stored away. I kept it at Ember since the castle was my best-protected house. It was an underground obsidian-lined chamber not unlike this bunker that held all sorts of weaponry and supplies I might need in an emergency.

This was certainly a good time.

Descending the stairs, I unearthed the hidden button and pressed it, opening up the heavy iron barricade. Once inside, I flipped a lever to turn on the lights.

I usually don't use much of what I have in the Vault. There are multiple sets of enchanted armor kept down there, and several enchanted diamond swords. I selected my best, _Firefall, _and selected a bow from the rack with a quiver of arrows that never ran out, _Skyfall. _I kept to my usual armor- it's a bad idea to change out of what you are used to, especially in times like these. Flipping off the lights behind me, I went back up into the open air and left Ember by the posterior gate. I was off to my first destination.

The Temple of Notch is a place that lies very close to Ember, close enough to reach on foot. I walked down the slightly overgrown path through the forest and up the hill where the forest broke ended and opened up to a clear plain. Before the hill was a large village, larger than the one near FireForge mansion and my home estate. Beyond that was the line of the mountains, and on the crest of one straight cliff were the spires of the Temple itself. Part of the temple was carved into the mountain rock, but the sanctuary and all its splendor are above ground. I made my way down the hill.

The village was quiet as I passed through. Most of the villages had received the news by now, that He was back. Everyone gave me fearful and worried glances, and one child came up nervously to give me a flower. A rose. I thanked the girl, and she went running back to her mother.

"Blessings and Ward of Notch," she said, and then the woman vanished with her daughter into one of the houses. I purchased breakfast at the local tavern, and went on my way.

Some time later, I climbed the Temple stairs and pushed into the welcoming hall of the above ground Temple, not stopping until I was in the innermost sanctum and well out of breath. If this were a normal trip, I would stop to admire the beauty of the Temple, especially in the sanctuary itself. The stone pillars soar up several stories, sweeping into graceful arches above. There are beautiful windows of stained glass in rich hues of blue and violet and red, with great rounds of fire-colored glass topping the balconies that run the length of the hall. In the front, between two great hanging tapestries, is the altar itself, made entirely of diamond, and behind that, a pyramid of gold and diamond, capped with a beacon. The holy light of Notch.

I peeled off my cloak now that I was out of the wind, and greeted one of the keepers of the temple that was sweeping in between the pews. He stopped his sweeping and came to me.

"Can I help you?" he asked, his tone calm and kind. I nodded, still catching my breath.

"I need information on Herobrine," I stated. The temple keeper gasped and made a sign against evil, giving me a wild look.

"Be careful when you say that name in this place!" he hissed. I apologized.

"I... Sorry. I really don't know how much time I have. Can you help me?" The keeper shook his head.

"You would need to ask Father Tiran. He's the head priest. Go downstairs and ask one of the Temple yeoman. They'll point you to where you need to be." Then the dark-robed keeper turned away and resumed sweeping. I thanked him and went the direction he had pointed, back out of the sanctuary and down the hall where a staircase led down into the mountain.

There was a yeoman in a white robe at the bottom of the stairs. I asked him where to find the Father, and he guided me to a small, discreet cell off the main hall. The yeoman rapped twice on the door, and a baritone voice called from inside.

"You may enter." The yeoman bowed and walked away, leaving me to open the door and cautiously step inside. A tall Villager man was standing inside behind an oak desk, dressed in a floor-length purple robe. "May I help you?"

"I was directed here to see Father Tirian?" I nervously began. The priest nodded and smiled.

"That would be me," he said. "Have a seat... Huntress, I believe?" I nodded, and sank into the chair he gestured to gratefully. Father Tiran seated himself. I felt clumsy and awkward in his presence- he seemed to exude a quiet sort of power, a sort of stiff elegance that suited a priest. He was one that took well to being in charge.

"Now," Father Tiran began, "What is it that you needed from me?" I shifted and drew out the old papers that the village priest had given me from my inventory and handed them to him. He took them without a word and began to examine them carefully.

"You have heard the news?" I asked, and Father Tiran looked up and nodded.

"I am aware that a forgotten entity has been released from the Nether," he confirmed. "I heard that it was an accident, but terrible destruction has been wrought. I think we should have known better." I sighed.

"But we didn't, so now I am trying to find out what I can. Who was Herobrine, and why was he in the Nether to begin with? What would he want now? That sort of thing." Father Tiran looked amused.

"I cannot answer those questions," he said, "But I can direct you somewhere where you may find answers. You see, there are ancient texts and scriptures that you can find, but we have not had access to for a long time. Do you know the history of this temple?" I shifted in my seat, sensing that he was about to keep me stuck here with a long story. I shook my head.

"This is not the original Temple that stood on these mountains," Father Tirian said. "There was one before, with a much larger complex than what we have here, but it was buried in a disastrous earthquake and landslide. Many attempts have been made to uncover it again, but too many cave-ins have happened as a result. I have forbidden any of my yeoman and priests from attempting to explore it. However, it shouldn't be so much as a problem for you." He smiled ruefully. "Considering what you are. There is a library down there somewhere. An ancient one. It is believed to date back to the age before the fall of Herobrine. I cannot say how much would be left, but you may find what you need. The last entrance we dug is at the base of the cliffs. Look for the white marker stone."

"Is that all?" I asked carefully. Father Tiran grinned.

"You thought I was going to babble on all day, didn't you?" I blinked and found myself nodding despite myself. Father Tiran laughed.

"No, I'm not like the others. Notch only knows that's why I'm the head priest. Now off with you! Time is of the essence."

"Thank you," I said, still surprised by the energetic nature of the old priest. Bowing in farewell, I turned and left.

The marker stone was exactly where Father Tiran said it would be, and it wasn't long before I had dug my way past the cave-in and into a brick tunnel. That had to be the old complex. Lighting a torch, I began to explore.

Hours later, I had a pack full of crumbling books but no real answers. With my torch in one hand and a half-loaf of bread in the other, I paced down the tunnels and ancient hallways grumbling to myself. I was definitely inside an old building now, and not a dug-out tunnel, but I had no real clues as to what was happening, or even where I was. I stopped at every dusty chest and shelf to look, but found nothing related to Herobrine.

A strange sound made me freeze. Swallowing my last bit of bread, I backtracked a few paces and dropped my torch in a rusty bracket on the wall. There was a bright light spilling out from behind something. I peeked around the corner, and saw its source from somewhere down the side hall. Moving carefully, I went and looked to see what was there.

Down a stone brick staircase was a circle of stars. Well, not actually stars, but it looked as if there was a hole in the floor that opened up to the night sky. It was bordered by a ring of nine blocks, each with a glassy eye placed in their top slots. A portal. An End portal. I had stumbled upon a Stronghold.

There were also three Endermen around the portal. That was the sound I had heard- that distinct, melodic chuckling of their language. Now they had all stopped talking and were glaring up at me. Endermen weren't hostile, per se, but...

Looking an Enderman in the eye is taboo. Fixing my gaze on my toes, I backed away and left the way I had come, retrieving my torch from the bracket. Don't call me superstitious- I've accidentally looked at an Enderman's eyes, and I found out just how vicious they can be. There's a reason that taboo is there.

Only minutes later I found something even more exciting. I found myself in a straight hallway that led into a huge chamber. It was too dark to see how far it went, but I could tell it was vast from the echo. Looking around with my torch before me, I saw several redstone lamps in the wall. This place was powered. There was a lever by the entryway from the corridor. Lowering my torch, I gripped it and pulled.

I nearly fell over from what I saw.

The lamps flickered on to reveal a room even larger than I had anticipated. Bright, polished gold sparkled before me, and as my vision adjusted, I was able to see clearly all the detailing. The room had pillars of gold, and there was a great golden structure in the center on a raised dais of blue lapis stone. The floor was made up of checks of black obsidian and a smooth white stone I didn't recognize, and the walls were of the same, all smooth white behind the golden pillars. There were windows, but they were all blocked up with dirt and stone. All around the room were little nooks and niches in the walls that held all sorts of things on display.

I cautiously approached the dais, curious. This didn't look like anything of Notch. There was no beacon, after all. I stepped into the golden structure, and it hit me then. There was a low barrier in front, and in the back, a small depression with a blackened bottom. Probably where an eternal flame burned once. Above that was a small depiction of a black-shirted man with white eyes.

This was a shrine. To Herobrine.

I backed down the dais again, breathless. They _worshiped _Herobrine? My mind raced. It only made sense, of course, that things were different before the Fall of Herobrine in the tale the priest had given me. Maybe he wasn't evil in the beginning...

But he certainly was now. I wanted to get out of here.

But before I could leave, I decided to take a look around at the things displayed in the temple chamber. Surely there would be treasures here that would lead me to answers. And as a matter of fact, I was not disappointed.

In the center alcove on the left hand wall, I found three thick volumes on pedestals on a table. Each was bound in leather, with the titles etched in gold on the covers: _Chronicle I, Chronicle II, Chronicle III. _I slid a finger under the cover of _Chronicle I _and bent it back carefully- it bent smoothly, as if well-used but still relatively new. A few pages later was the creation story.

_In the beginning, there were the Brothers: Notch, and Herobrine. _

That rocked me back on my heels. Herobrine was... no, no it couldn't have been. No, Notch and Herobrine _hated _each other! What was this? Confused and excited, I lifted the tome from its pedestal and was about to keep reading. This could be exactly what I needed!

A low, melodic chuckling drew my focus away from the book in my hands. Scalp prickling, I realized that I was being watched. I had probably been followed, and right now there was very likely a trio of Endermen right behind me. I stowed the three _Chronicles _away in my inventory and placed a hand on the hilt of _Firefall. _I was mentally preparing myself to make a run for it.

Genuine human laughter echoed from somewhere behind me, shooting needles across my nerves. Who followed me!? There was only one person it could be. I sucked in my breath and loosened _Firefall _in its sheath. No, it couldn't be Him. He couldn't have found me yet, not so soon...

"What delightful irony," said a strong tenor voice from behind me, "to find a Notch-loyal Steve brat lurking in a church devoted to me. I cannot say I am not surprised- I thought I wiped out your kind." I clenched my jaw hard and gripped the hilt of _Firefall, _but I didn't dare draw. Instead, I swallowed hard and wrestled with my adrenaline-shocked voice until I could speak with dignity.

"Glad to prove you wrong," I spat. "I was looking for lost ancient lore. This seemed a good place to start." I could have sworn I could _hear _Herobrine smirking from behind me.

"You have nerves for a mortal- I'll give you that." Herobrine gave an exaggerated sigh. "It's too bad, really, that your friend isn't the same. What was his name?... Ah, yes, Dragon. He and I have become rather well acquainted in the Nether, you know." I choked involuntarily.

"What do you want with me?" I asked, keeping my voice low and hoping it didn't shake too much.

"Oh, not much really," Herobrine droned from behind me. I was still frozen in place, glaring at the pillar in front of me, not daring to turn around. A cold hand appeared on my shoulder and gripped uncomfortably hard. "I want to see how much fun you can be to play with," he whispered in my ear. I went rigid. Chuckling humorlessly, Herobrine removed his hand and walked a few paces away.

"I suppose this is what you could call a 'friendly first encounter'," Herobrine said. "Don't worry, I know you are no ordinary Son of Steve. You have the most fascinating powers. It should be most amusing." Then he seemed to be addressing someone else. "Old friends, kill this one and let her respawn in the midst of her burning castle." I panicked and fumbled in my inventory.

"Castles can be rebuilt!" I snapped, holding up a pail of water as a clear sign to the Endermen: I won't hurt you if you don't hurt me. My response gave Herobrine pause.

"That is true," He resigned, "But there is something you have not considered- your Villager friends. Their lives cannot be so easily replaced, now can they? And what of your friend Dragon? He can resurrect from anything- which means he can suffer for eternity in the Nether." I gasped, and the pail shook in my grasp. Herobrine laughed, the sound echoing through the room.

"Damn you," I hissed, gripping the hilt of my sword so hard my knuckles turned white.

"Do you need encouragement? It seems so. We'll just have to start with someone closer to home. Let's try Father Tiran..." He didn't finish.

"NO!" _Firefall _flew out of its sheath and I leaped onto the table before me, turning and launching myself at Herobrine with my sword held high. I got one good look at Herobrine before he blinked out of sight, and _Firefall _skidded on the floor instead, sending sparks and chips of obsidian flying. Something hit me hard in the side. I folded under the force of the blow and slid fast across the floor, my breath all knocked out of me. Herobrine had teleported around me and kicked me across the room.

"I have an appointment with the village outside," Herobrine sneered. "Kill her. I'll give her a taste of chaos soon enough." I watched helplessly as Herobrine vanished from sight, leaving the three Endermen slowly approaching me where I lay gasping.

Planting _Firefall _point-first on the floor, I leaned on the hilt and hauled myself to my feet. A grating cry was beginning to fill the room. Hefting my sword, I charged at the nearest Enderman. It vanished before my blow could land, but I had anticipated that. Pivoting around, I swung pommel-first and hit the creature in the face. It went down with a sharp bark of pain.

The other two were almost on me. Thinking fast, I retrieved my bucket of water from my inventory and threw it down. The Endermen backed off fast. The one I had hit screamed and vanished, hopefully back to the End. If there's one thing Endermen hate, it's water. It burns them like lava burns us.

The other two circled me from the edges of the small pool, waiting for the water to drain away. It was doing so quickly- I had to make my move before then. Boots splashing hard, I made a running leap at the closer one. It didn't get away in time and took the brunt of my stroke. Teleporting away, it tried to strike again from behind. I stabbed viciously backwards, and got lucky. The grating scream rattled my ears.

One left to go- but the water was gone, run away to tiny rivulets on the smooth floor. I moved to attack the last one too late. A pair of mottled black arms closed around me and my vision fizzed with purple sparks and went black.

Something sharp stabbed at my armor, multiple times. I could hear the links rattling on my mail, and something bludgeoned me in the face. Suddenly, there was a scream and it stopped. I found myself looking up at the night sky above.

I realized I was falling.

The cold surface of a lake slapped me hard on landing and swallowed me whole. Shocked back to my senses, I thrashed underwater and tried to move up. Somehow I was able to orient myself, and I made it to the surface coughing and gasping. Thunder rolled from above. I looked up and saw what had happened. The Enderman had teleported me to a cliff above the lake, but it had started raining. Blinded by water, I started swimming for shore, hampered by my cloak and heavy armor.

My armor was still on me, and I still held my sword. Good. They hadn't succeeded in killing me. Water ran down my face- I swiped a hand across my eyes to clear them, but my hand came away glistening red in the moonlight. Probing carefully, I found a deep cut on my forehead. I knew I had others.

I started to look around, trying to orient myself. There was a lake near Ember- was this the one? Yes, I knew that island. Then I noticed something that made my heart stop.

There was a red glare on the horizon.

For a moment I was too dazed to realize what was happening. Then I connected the pieces- I was very close to the Temple village, and Herobrine had said something about bringing them harm... And wildfires made that sort of glare.

The Temple village was burning.

I broke into a run through the forest.

My hand is beginning to cramp. I don't want to sleep again, but the page is getting blurry. I'll write more when I wake again.


	3. Entry Three

**Date: Year 10181 Villager calender, third day of summer**

**Hiding in my bunker**

My things are packed. I've made the decision- I'm going to get out of here today. As soon as I have finished writing.

I just can't stay in here. It's too tight and I'm going stir-crazy.

Now where was I?

Oh.

Well, better get this over with. I promised myself I would write it all.

I dragged myself out of the lake gasping and coughing, too relieved to realize what was happening around me. When I had gotten myself sorted out and as much as the water off as I could, I took a look around. The area was quiet around the lake, with a chilly breeze sifting through the trees. The thin mist of rain pattered down on the lake, and the chuckling waters lapped gently on their shores. The entire scene had a deep sense of serenity. I went on all fours and just gulped in the air, happier than anything to simply be alive.

Somewhere in that time, my instincts took over the false sense of security. I looked up and realized that it was well past sundown- shouldn't there be monsters? I got to my feet, my sword unsteady in my hand, but nothing moved. Fatigue pulled at the edges of my focus, willing me to just lay down and sleep for now. I was exhausted. I could go fight when I was rested...

An acrid scent blew past my nose. Snapping out of it, I looked upwind and sniffed the air. There was definitely something foreign on the wind. Above the smells of the forest and the lake, there was a slight smoky tang.

No. Just smoke. Unmistakeably smoke.

That was when I noticed the red glare growing on the horizon.

"_NO!_" I screamed, and at that moment, my heart nearly stopped. The village! I had to get to the village! Without another moment's hesitation, I tore off into the night.

I flew through the forest, barreling past anything in my way. With every step, I prayed to Notch that I wouldn't be to late. Wet branches slapped my chest, my arms, my face. Thorns tugged at my legs and cloak. In one terrifying instance, a thorn bush caught my cloak and held it, stopping me dead in my tracks. Screaming in frustration, I fumbled with the ties and ripped it off, leaving it hanging on the thorns. I was warm enough without it.

Heart pounding and chest heaving, I broke through the trees at last and had to stop. Gasping, I looked out across the plains towards the village. What I saw made my knees give out.

The plains themselves were aflame. The weak drizzle of rain did nothing to impede the progress of the wildfire, and bright tongues of fire licked the air for as far as I could see. Smoke rose in a thick haze that set me hacking in moments. From where I knelt, I could only just see the village. Tears blurred my eyes.

I could hear them. Above the crackling of the fire, I could hear the screams. Too hoarse to shout or even to speak, I closed my eyes and covered my ears. There was nothing I could do! I couldn't get to them in time! It was already too late- Herobrine was already here. He was already slaughtering them.

Something made me stop and take my hands off my ears. Another sound. It was weak and strained from echoing across the vast space, but I knew that sound. It was a now very familiar laughter. Rage blossomed in my chest.

"You-... You Notch-cursed filth." I muttered darkly, narrowing my eyes against the smoke. Tears were already streaming down my face. I let them. Slowly, legs shaking from the effort, I got to my feet and drew my sword. "Not this time, Herobrine."

Leaping down the hill, I faced the fire head-on. I was still wet from the lake, and that helped. Aiming for the blackened, burned-out patches, I ran through the fire as fast as I could. Hot smoke burned my lungs, and my boots began to char from where I had to step. Whenever I reached a clearing in the fire, I had to stop and rest. For all my rage, my legs weren't going to hold up after my run through the forest. It was getting harder and harder to breathe, harder and harder to put one foot in front of the other. My mouth had an unpleasant feeling to it, like I had chewed on gritty sand. I spat out the grit, and it came out black. Bad sign.

The screams were dying down. That made me move even faster, even as my entire body felt like it was on fire and melting in the heat. Silence meant... I didn't want to think about it.

All at once, I was out of the fire. My legs gave out again, and this time, I fell flat full-length.

That wouldn't do.

Fishing around in my inventory, I found a healing potion and thanked my lucky stars that I had had enough sense to bring it. Dragging myself to a sitting position, I coughed hard and spat out another wad of bitter, charcoal-tasting black and tipped the potion into my mouth. The taste was sickeningly sweet after the smoke, but I forced it down. Gagging, I threw the empty bottle aside and shuddered as the potion took effect. Strength returned to my limbs. I was able to stand.

_Firefall _in hand, I charged past the village barrier.

Immediately I knew I was too late.

Half of the wooden houses were now blackened skeletons, and the rest were on fire. There was lava in the streets. I found the first living soul by tripping on him. The Villager was draped limply across his stairs and into the street, moaning weakly. Horrified, I sheathed my sword and grasped the man under the shoulders and helped him up onto the stone stairs. With all the awful noise he was making, I couldn't move him any further without my stomach turning. When I removed my hands, they were covered in sticky red blood. I swallowed hard and wiped them off as best as I could on the ground.

There were no bodies, but I knew the signs of death well enough. There were man-sized patches of dark red here and there, and tattered robes. I found another living person- a child- weeping at one of those patches, screaming for her mother. I glanced at her and then looked back harder. She had given me a rose only that morning. Her mother had wished me well... No, oh _Notch _no, that was where she had been killed!

A fireball arced down at the child. Thinking fast, I dove down and scooped up the girl, and we both narrowly missed being hit. The outside edge of the blast hit my side and I cried out in pain as my metal chain armor superheated. Dropping the crying girl behind a pile of rubble, I rolled to my feet and drew my sword.

Herobrine hovered in the air between what was left of two houses, his white eyes gleefully shining. He had another fireball floating in one hand, waiting to be cast.

"Well hello there, Huntress." He said mockingly. "I can't say that I am not surprised. To be honest, I'm amazed that you made it this far. And still standing? Most impressive." I raised my sword and said nothing.

Herobrine lazily threw his fireball in my direction. I flew aside and rolled, and it skidded on the ground where I was and exploded. My ears rang from the blast, and I had trouble understanding what Herobrine said after that.

"You know, you had a lot more spirit when we were at the temple," he said as he floated gracefully to the ground while I clumsily regained my footing. "Where has that gone now? Has it been drowned in your utter insignificance?" I snorted.

"That wasn't exactly the most poetic." I said bitterly. Herobrine narrowed his eyes.

"Nonetheless," Herobrine pronounced deliberately, venom dripping from his voice, "You will die here. I am going to kill you here and now, and you will respawn exactly where I want you to. There is nothing you can do to stop me." He laughed a little. "On the lighter side, you will get to see your friend Dragon again in the Nether. I'm sure you miss him." I glared at him.

A thought struck me. Moving quickly, I reached into my inventory and retrieved a small and valuable object that I had been given by the priests at the Temple a long time ago. Setting the commands, I placed the block right in front of me and smirked. Herobrine's smile faded.

"A command block. How clever." His voice was carefully controlled, but his eyes flared much, much brighter. I backed up a step, more than a little intimidated.

A bolt of lighting struck the block with a deafening _boom _of thunder. When my vision cleared, Herobrine stood a little closer, his expression dark and fiery. The command block was unharmed. I cautiously smiled.

"I thought you liked tricks," I taunted. "You certainly pulled a lot of them in the Temple." Herobrine closed his eyes and his face smoothed. When he opened his eyes again, his countenance was calm, but his gaze was flaring dangerously.

"No matter. You can keep this game going as long as you want, _Huntress, _but only so far as your strength and your _tricks _will last." Herobrine wasn't laughing now. Instead, I faced a cold and ruthless killer, with more power than any other being in the universe, aside from Notch himself. "And I am still going to kill you."

"I am not afraid to die," I retorted, but my hands were subtly shaking as they gripped my sword a little tighter. I was lying, and he knew it. I hadn't died many times in the past, in fact, I had only died twice in my life. Both times were horrible. Once was from a long fall into lava, and the other was falling into a cave literally swarming with monsters, and my weapons ran out. This time, I would respawn in the place of my choice with all of my items, but this time was no better. Actually, it was worse. I had never died alone before. Ever.

Not afraid to die? Please. I had never been more afraid in my life.

"I see you, Huntress." Herobrine said, shifting into a simple battle stance. I knew what he meant- he could see what I was really feeling. He could see into me, into my thoughts and memories. "You know what this means. This is a temporary reprise, and nothing more."

I watched in terror as the hilt of a sword appeared in Herobrine's hand. Slowly, a heavy black blade formed, glittering in the firelight. The blade was wider and longer than my own sword, and I knew it would be hard to defend against. A sword that size had simply too much weight behind it, and with the ease I saw Herobrine handle it, I knew I was in over my head. He was bigger than me, and much stronger, and faster, too.

I wasn't going to last long.

"I cannot imprison you," Herobrine conceded, hefting his sword, "But I can still make you SUFFER!" On that last word he lunged forward.

I couldn't move in time and just barely parried his lightning blow. Immediately, another heavy blow came to the other side, and his sword skidded off of mine to squeal against my armor. It held- barely. I groaned as I felt my chain mail dig into my flesh.

His sword came down again, and I blocked it straight-on. The force behind it nearly sent me to my knees, and he slid the blade so that our swords locked. He grinned broadly as he looked me in the face. I gritted my teeth and focused on holding his blade at bay. My arms shook from the effort.

"Now now, you can't expect to win like that," Herobrine mocked. Slowly, his blade forced mine down further and further. He was toying with me. I slid a foot backwards and quickly shifted my weight. My sword tore free of the hilt-to-hilt lock.

Suddenly, Herobrine's sword swept around and up, slamming my sword up and around. I felt the shock of it all the way up my arm through the shoulder, and the joint popped unpleasantly. I don't know how I kept my grip.

Before I could react, Herobrine half-turned and kicked me full-on in the chest. My breath _whooshed _out of my lungs and I flew backwards, hitting a brittle wall hard and crashing through. I landed in a heap as a pile of charred debris rained down on me. Gasping, I accidentally took in a lungful of ash.

Coughing desperately, I clawed my way up through the pile until I was out in the air again. Grasping my sword, I tried to stand and slipped on something loose, falling belly-first back down onto the rubble.

Herobrine was there in an instant. He snatched me up by grasping a handful of the back of my chain mail and throwing me headlong into the open. I crashed into the remaining wall of the church tower, rebounded, and fell to the ground slumped against the cobble wall. My sword had flown out of my hand and rattled on the scattered stones. My head throbbed and my ears rang louder than ever. My vision blurred, and for a moment, I nearly passed out.

A hissing sound brought me back to my senses. I looked up just in time to see a fireball whistling straight at me, and barely threw myself aside in time. The fireball struck what was left of the church tower and exploded, sending chunks of blazing-hot scree flying through the air and battering me as I rolled. Scrabbling for my sword, I got up and tried to run.

Coughing and staggering, I didn't make it very far before Herobrine was upon me again. He came up behind me and hooked one of his feet in front of my ankles, sweeping my feet out from under me. I fell flat and cried out sharply when my tender and aching head hit the stones below.

Herobrine stabbed down at me. I swung my sword as hard as I could and only just deflected the blow, and then rolled aside, heaving myself away. He stopped me dead by standing on my leg, and stabbed down again. I screamed as his sword tore through my iron leggings and into my thigh. Writhing against the blade, I tried to shake off Herobrine's weight to no avail.

Herobrine ripped his sword free, and let me drag myself away and get to my feet dizzily. I couldn't put weight on the wounded leg at all, and my vision was swooping and whirling in such a way that I could barely stand. Undoubtedly from hitting my head so hard. Gripping my sword with both hands, I stood and faced Herobrine with an unshakable feeling of despair. He was right- I couldn't beat him, and he sure wasn't going to relent.

Herobrine raised his sword, and then lowered it, a grin on his face. He moved it from a two-hand grip to his left hand and raised his right, palm up.

"I don't need this to finish you," He murmured, almost to himself. I watched, horrified, as a bright orb of fire formed in his hand. It was too late to run. I was able to take one step backwards before Herobrine flicked the fireball at me. It hit the ground right in front of my feet.

The world exploded into heat and light and I flew up into the air.

For a few terrifying seconds, I couldn't see or hear, and all I knew was that I was falling fast. The ground rushed up and I slammed down hard. Something dull and pointed was under my back, and I heard something break on impact. My sword clattered away somewhere- I could only just hear it. My ears were ringing so loud, and my vision was filled with red starbursts.

I knew it was the end.

Flipping onto my belly, I dragged myself to where my sword had fallen and touched it with one hand. It vanished into my inventory. Good. At least I wouldn't lose that.

Moaning in agony, I rolled back onto my back and gagged. Something hot and acidic was coming up. Too weak to move, I let my head roll to the side and my body heaved without warning. I retched onto the blackened ground, coughing hard between heaves. There was nothing but bitter acid that came up, and more blood than I was comfortable with. The smell of it made me sick. Swallowing hard, I worked up a mouthful of saliva in my dry mouth and spat, and turned my head the other way. I had never been in so much pain.

Herobrine came into my line of sight with his sword resting casually across his shoulders.

"Pathetic," he said, looking meaningfully at the mess I had made. "You really are weak after all. Determined, but weak. You came all this way... for what? You saved no one and only brought about your own demise." Herobrine put the tip of his sword to my throat. "It's almost tragic, really. It took all of this pain to teach you that you cannot defy me. Not these Villagers, not Dragon, and most certainly not you. I told you this would come, Huntress. Prepare yourself."

I watched Herobrine raise his sword and fresh adrenaline shot through my entire being. But it was too late. My body screamed in protest when I even thought of moving. My breath quickening, I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped it would be quick.

Searing pain tore through my chest and everything fell into dizzying silence.

Moments later, I woke up here in my bunker, alive and gasping. Gathering my knees to my chest, I let out a strangled sob and began to cry.

I... I'm sorry, I have to stop.

* * *

I'm sorry if my handwriting wasn't that neat for those last few pages. My hands were shaking.

They still are.

I don't know what we are going to do against Him. I really don't. I've never fought so hard in my life, and I've never been beaten so badly.

It's time to leave. I don't want to- especially not now. Not after reliving that to write it down. But someone has to fight Him. Someone has to do _something. _I just don't know what.

It's sunrise out there. I'm going to bring this along with me, just in case I get the chance to write more later. Maybe I'll have some good luck after that.

Notch help me, and for the love of all that is holy, let the others be okay.

It's time to go.

* * *

**Amanda the Huntress here. Whew! That one was a doozy! (slaps self awake and looks over shoulder to make sure Herobrine isn't there)  
**

**I know, I KNOW! That was violent. Why do you think Huntress was having nightmares? **

**Anyway, this rewrite is going surprisingly well. That was one SERIOUS fight, don't you agree? There'll be more where that came from, and lots of fun drama and lots and lots of running for our lives here. No flat scenes from me, you know me too well. I'll be surprised if you get the taste of smoke out of your mouth anytime soon (I know I won't...I'm the one who had to write that.)**

**How did you like it? Don't go away- I've got more coming up again soon! Leave a review if you want it on time. If I can get up to ten reviews before this Wednesday, I'll update then. (If not, you've got another week to wait, buster. I'm not pushing it without encouragement.)**

**Now- Huntress is alive and about to venture out into the open again... to what? What will she find out there? Will her friends be alive? Will she ever find answers? Or is Herobrine just going to beat her into pulp again and take over the world? (I hope not... *shudders at the thought of writing another defeat like that*) **

**Remember- REVEIW NOW AND GET ANOTHER UPDATE IN TWO DAYS! Make sure to like and follow and I will see you later, readers!**


	4. Entry Four

**Date: Year 10181 Villager calender, tenth day of summer**

**Somewhere north of the Temple of Notch, in a cave**

I'm still alive, at least. I've been traveling hard for several days on foot, headed over the mountains to a ruin that I'm not entirely sure even exists pictured on a map as ancient as the Temple itself. A snowstorm hit yesterday in the afternoon, and I took shelter in this cave. The storm is still going, and I got bored and decided that this was a good time to write in my journal. I've covered a lot of ground since I left my bunker.

The most incredible things have happened, and I'm not sure how to write it all down.

First- I saw Herobrine again.

Let me explain.

* * *

Before I left my bunker, I was looking through those three books I found in the destroyed Temple. The _Chronicles. _So far, I have read up through most of _Chronicle III. _I learned many interesting things while I read, and I don't know what to think.

The history that I was taught was that Notch created the world and peopled it with the Steve race. Then Herobrine, his renegade brother, waged war on him and nearly destroyed everything. The original Steves were wiped out. After a great struggle, Herobrine was cast down into the Nether ten thousand years ago, and Notch went about healing the scars upon the earth.

That isn't what I found in the _Chronicles_.

The story I found in these volumes reads that Notch and Herobrine loved each other as brothers, and created the Overworld _together. _It isn't entirely clear, but _Chronicle I_ says that Herobrine alone was the creator of the Steve race, and of many other things. Notch was still the supreme creator, but Herobrine didn't begrudge that. He wasn't as strong as his brother.

There are several fuzzy accounts of rebellion amongst the Sons of Steve. Herobrine wasn't the instigator, and all of the rebellions were in fact against him. He is portrayed as a good and loving god.

Then something changed. Herobrine shut down and closed off, obsessed with something that none of his Steve subjects could discern. The rebellions got worse, and Herobrine became harsher in his punishment. He seemed to be contracting some sort of sickness of the mind or heart. Then one day, he vanished. He left behind all of his terrible punishments for the treason of Stevedom- the monsters of the night, the harshness of the ground and the unsteadiness of the earth itself. Mining and farming were incredibly difficult.

Steve society nearly fell when he disappeared. Steves broke into different warring nations and factions, and there were few good souls left. The last followers of Herobrine and Notch prayed desperately for salvation.

Then one day, Herobrine came back. But this wasn't a good thing- he immediately unleashed his full power upon the Steves. Backed by armies and armies of Endermen, Herobrine chased the survivors of his wrath from one end of the earth to the other, until there were none left alive. The last Steve, the _Chronicle _notes, died in solitude in a remote Villager settlement, childless and brokenhearted.

Not once did Notch appear in the carnage.

It was only after the troubles that Notch confronted his brother and forced his reign of terror over the Overworld to end. There was an incredible struggle between the two gods, with such force that the very earth shook. Weeks passed before the tremors stopped. At the end of it all, Notch at last cast down his brother to the infernal realm of the Nether, sealing him away for what he had done.

Then Notch was gone. For the past ten thousand years, more or less, there have been no recorded appearances of either god.

What struck me when I read the stories was the positive light Herobrine was portrayed in. The writer of the history clearly loved him, and all of the evil was blamed on madness. The _Chronicle _reads like this:

"_From whence this change came, I cannot say, but to say that Herobrine fell to madness in his despair and in his abandonment. No other explanation will suffice- man or god, no one can become so evil from such heights of good, nor can anyone become so good from such depths of evil as the leaders among the Steve deviants did claim. The race had fallen, and Herobrine had been struck down by madness. I fear that there is a greater evil involved, but I have no evidence of such. Truly, this is a tragedy, to see our brother race gone and our patron fallen."_

I didn't get it when I read it in the bunker. I still don't get it now. But to be fair, it makes sense. Herobrine when I met him was, well, insane. Clearly insane.

With all this in mind, I packed up, wrote the last few passages in my journal, and left the bunker.

* * *

I needed a little rest earlier. It's dark now, but I can write by firelight.

I don't think I can express how deeply my defeat has affected me emotionally and mentally. Remember the nightmares I've been having? I'm still having them. Last night I had another bad one. I saw Dragon again, and he was hanging on a chain over a pit of- ...

Never mind.

I had to repair my armor. There was a huge gash in my mail, both front and back, where Herobrine stabbed me, and a rend in my leg armor where he got me in the leg. But that wasn't much of an inconvenience- I had supplies in my bunker.

What is disturbing is that I have a scar on my chest now. It needs to be understood that we modern Steves don't scar when we're killed. We wake up in our clothes without a mark on us. But this time, I had a dark, ridged scar. It's faded to white now, but it's there. And it hurts. If I get upset or when I wake up from a really bad nightmare, it'll flare up and make me feel as if my entire body is on fire. With it this cold outside, it's aching now.

Where was I?

When I first left my bunker a week ago, I would see Herobrine out of the corners of my eyes. Panicked, I would turn around, and see no one there. I've had this unshakeable sense of unease since I left. I know I'm being watched by something, or someone.

I set off towards the Temple again, warily. I knew it was a bad idea to visit the same place twice, but there were some things I needed to clear up. I still didn't have all the answers I needed, and I had been told of a massive library underground below the modern Temple by Father Tiran. It was the only place I knew to look.

I broke through the forest to the west of the Temple mountains with a mounting sense of dread. Somewhere up ahead, over the low hills, were the ruins of the Temple village. I wasn't ready to face that horror. My mind flashed back to that little girl I had saved by sending her behind a pile of rubble. Cresting the rise, I prayed that she was all right. Maybe she had found help.

There it was. The village lay before me in the distance, in stark contrast to the mountains looming over it. The plains were blackened and crumbling gray where the fire had done its work, and the village itself was nothing more than a burned-out wreck. The central church tower was a stone stump, and the far tower was fallen over at the second story. The top story had smashed into the neighboring library. Smoke still fluttered up in some places, and ash floated into the air as the breeze agitated the dust. I took a deep breath and continued forward, keeping the cliffs to my left and my eyes straight ahead.

I wanted desperately to visit the Temple, but I knew I couldn't. It would put them in indescribable danger after what just happened, and it would broadcast my location. I was taking enough risks for one day.

There was a point where the cliffs swept very close to the Village. I couldn't help but see how deeply the ruination had struck. I passed only a few dozen blocks away from a library with its back end smashed off, books scattered on the grass. The wind picked up, ramming into the cliffs and blowing ash in my face. I covered my face with one hand, and when I looked back, I could see small things blowing towards me. A half-burned page. A broken torch, unlit, sliding on the ground. A scrap of green cloth.

A withered rose. I still had the rose from that girl. My chest seized up, and I had to stop as the pain got worse and worse. Crumpling to my knees, I hugged my chest with one arm and covered my mouth with my free hand. My vision blurred with tears. A strangled sound came up from deep in my throat, and I thought I was going to throw up. It was just too much- just too much pain...

Breathing quickly, I removed my hand and let myself sob. The wound on my chest burned with a gnawing sort of pain that made my breathing hitch hard. Tears ran freely down my face. This shouldn't have happened. None of this should have happened, and it was all our fault.

Gasping, I somehow got myself under control and got to my feet, wiping my face with my new cloak. I had a dark, hollow feeling in my stomach. I felt like I had swallowed lava, and it had hardened. My limbs were stiff when I came to the white stone marker.

Something moved out of the corner of my eye. I whirled, sword out in an instant. I could have sworn I saw white eyes...

Nothing was there.

Reluctantly sheathing my sword, I turned around and entered the tunnel. I took a torch from my inventory and lit it, and went on my way, hand on _Firefall'_s hilt all the way.

I saw more flashes like that as I went. My nerves got worse and worse, until I carried my naked sword in my hand and checked over my shoulder every few paces.

But despite...that...I found that the _Chronicles _were a great help. They had outlines of the ancient Temple complex. I had checked and re-checked the diagrams, and found that the room I had found was in fact the temple of Herobrine, just as I had suspected. Somewhere opposite to that room was the temple to Notch. Or rather, the two rooms were sanctuaries to the gods, and the Temple was to both of the brothers equally. I already suspected that what I had been taught before was a long way from the truth, but doubt remained. What if this was a trick by Herobrine? He only had to fake the books and the picture in the ancient Temple.

I just don't know.

Anyway, the _Chronicles _also showed the exact location of the Great Library. It was centered in the Temple, under a skylight. It had been buried the deepest in the landslide, being under a very tall peak.

With the help of the book, I found it within minutes.

My torchlight showed me a set of double doors, framed in emerald. Carefully, I shouldered the right-hand door open and poked my torch in. The room it revealed was truly massive.

Red carpet covered the floor, muffling the sound in the room that would have echoed otherwise. There were bookshelves covering the walls up two stories, with a balcony on the second story. Freestanding shelves cut the room into different sections, and there were small tables surrounded by benches here and there for study.

The center of the room, under a high skylight, was somehow intact. Part of the skylight had been broken out by the weight of the landslide, but it was framed in stone, and most of the glass held. Piles of dirt were under the broken-out sections, but the rest was clear.

I decided to start there in the center. I wouldn't have time to look through the entirety of the library. Approaching the center with care, I came upon a ring of pedestals meant for books.

There were dozens of books displayed on pedestals and on little podiums, some open to show off beautiful calligraphy and colorful illustration. But one thing caught my eye- there were three empty pedestals in the middle of the ring. I looked around. Everything was coated in a thin film of dust and grit from the landslide that made it in. The pedestals had clean rectangles on them where a book once was. Recently.

Brow furrowed, I took out _Chronicle II _and experimentally placed it on the pedestal. It fit the dust-free spot perfectly. I put the book back into my inventory.

"So these were from here," I whispered to myself, wary of the silence around me. "Why were they in Herobrine's temple?"

"So you could find them."

I started violently and whirled around, nearly knocking down the pedestal behind me. It rocked wildly, slowly going back and forth until it settled back onto its base. The sound of the wooden base rocking on its stone tile echoed lazily in the great space. I didn't move until it stopped.

There before me stood Herobrine.

I raised my sword, eyes wide. My entire body thrummed with tension. My body still remembered the last we fight. Oh yes, it remembered quite clearly. My chest twinged, and I winced briefly, then tried to hide it.

Herobrine smiled.

Chuckling darkly, he spread his arms and took a pace or two backwards. It was a notably different sound than before- much less diabolical, almost self-depreciating. His smile held none of the controlled disgust and mockery. It looked almost...kind. He took one more step back, going right through a pedestal behind him.

I realized that he wasn't actually there and slowly lowered my sword. This was an illusion. My intuition pricked up, warning me that the real Herobrine could be anywhere around me.

"I'm not going to harm you this time, Huntress." Herobrine said. His tone was lower than his first one. It sounded strained, with that slight crackle to it that you hear in people that shout too much. I shifted, realizing that I had been staring.

"How did you know I came here?" I cautiously asked, surreptitiously glancing around. Everything around us was still, with no other signs of anything living.

"I can see into your mind, Huntress," Herobrine answered, a low warning tone in his voice. "I can't actually tell where you are, but I can come to you like this if you are close enough. From now on you will need to guard your thoughts." Funny, it sounded like he was warning me about his powers- like he was trying to help me. That put me on higher alert. Closing my eyes, I shoved the thought away.

"Why did you want me to find the _Chronicles_?" I asked, cutting straight to the point. I have always hated useless banter and beating-around-the-bush. Herobrine smiled again.

"The truth has been gone a long time," Herobrine said. "I was hoping that someone would be able to recover it. When the _Chronicles _were buried and their author killed, I thought no one would ever find the truth. Or even start looking for it, really. No one has been interested in such a long time.

"I don't have much time, Huntress, and you must understand that our next meeting will be different. None of us are safe. Trust what you find in the _Chronicles._"

I tightened my grip on my sword.

"I don't trust you," I muttered.

"Smart girl," Herobrine responded, his face free of all rancor. "That's why I cleared the way to this library." He swept an arm up, gesturing around the room. "The halls leading up to this had collapsed. I opened the way for you, and now I will give you something you will need later on." He gestured to something behind me. I turned, and saw two books highlighted in purple light.

"You can trust what is written in these, even after being guided to them by me. One is written by my own hand, one is not. You don't have to trust me to reach the truth. However, I doubt you will be able to read them until you learn the high script. They are very, very old- older than the _Chronicles._"

The image of Herobrine flickered, and his face twisted and then immediately smoothed itself. His eyes glowed brighter, and he looked away at something I could not see. He looked back at me and looked me straight in the eye.

"My time is up. Be ready." His voice faded as he said this, and as I watched, he vanished into nothingness.

I was left staring at the books on the pedestals that he had pointed out. The purple glow had faded, but I could see their covers in my torchlight.

_The Book of Herobrine, _and _The Book __of Notch. _

I wondered what Herobrine really wanted with me.

* * *

He was right that I wouldn't be able to read the books. I've tried several times, sitting here at my campfire in this cave and pouring over the pages. I've gone cross-eyed at least twice now, to no avail.

Beyond that, I've got the strangest feeling. I'm scared for Dragon, yes, and wary of Herobrine, but I also feel... determined. No, that isn't the right word. It's this strange stirring in my gut that tells me that I'm onto something. Herobrine spoke of finding the truth, which is what I set out to do. Was this a trick? All an elaborate trap? He could have killed me instead, and sent me to the Nether. I don't get why he didn't.

But I don't know if he would have, or could have, even gone that far just to trick me. Something was very, very different about him today when I saw him. Well, I didn't really _see _him today, which leaves me wondering. If he really wanted to talk to me, he could have come to me himself.

I can't shake the feeling that there's something bigger here at work. There's a piece missing in the story in the _Chronicles, _and I just know there's a piece missing now. I just can't say what.

Notch, I'm tired. I'm going to sleep before I confuse myself awake again. I'm on my way to an ancient Steve ruin- a city- that's in the _Chronicles. _It was one of the first cities, so maybe I'll find answers there.

I'll write more when I get the chance. Good night.

* * *

**Alright, veteran readers from _A Minecraft Tale,_ sit down and don't say a word. You know what's coming up, so don't spoil it for the new readers. To you new readers... Uh,...how do I put this?... I had fun writing that. Knowing me, you should know by know that if I had fun writing it, it generally isn't a good thing for the characters. **

**So. I didn't get my goal of ten reviews this chapter (I'm looking at you, old readers. You know who you are), so I'm moving that goal to this chapter. There is a bonus chapter coming up (a flash chapter, no more than a few hundred words, tops), so I'll be publishing faster anyway. That update is coming up mid-week, either Wednesday or Thursday. The real meat will be coming a little later than usual. I have other stories to update, _Chronicle_ chief among them. **

**I hope you enjoyed this little monkey wrench I threw into the plot! I fixed as many of the plot holes as I could find this go-round, and added a few subtleties that will help bind this in with the prequel and sequel a little more firmly. Trust me, BIG stuff is coming up. You-know-what is about to hit the fan, and I promise that you guys will love it. Remember the last chapter? I promised more of that. I meant it. **

**See you next chapter, and by the way, NaNoWriMo is coming. Let that be a warning for my future plans- both on irregular updates, and that I somehow perhaps maybe possibly just might have something special planned for all my loyal readers (A-HEM! *loyal* readers). Watch my profile for news on the... surprise. It'll be good. **

**See you next update! This has been a very long, drawn-out message from yours truly, and now I return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Please leave a fave, follow, or review, or just a review or all three is fine. Ciao.**


	5. Entry Five

**Date: Year 10181 Villager calender, twelfth day of summer**

**Somewhere North of the Temple mountains**

**Ancient ruin of the Sons of Steve**

I found it! I really found it! The city is exactly where the _Chronicle _maps stated that it would be. And the size of it!... Nothing we have ever built can even compare. Absolutely nothing.

I'm sitting inside what seems to be the entry hall of a great palace in the ruin. It's the only building that's entirely intact, save a part at the rear. The _Chronicles _call this place the Kingswatch or Kingshall something-or-other. It isn't consistent with the name. The story is, this is the place where Herobrine ruled the Sons of Steve. The day he vanished, his vassals came in to find that massive hole in the roof and wall in the throne room.

Interestingly enough, it's located at the rear of the building.

Oh, blast, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I left the cave this morning when the storm finally broke. It snowed for the entire day and night since I last wrote, and when the wind finally died down and the snow stopped, I literally had to dig myself out. Travel was hard, with the snow knee-deep, but when I reached what looked like a forest path, it got shallower and I could walk at a normal pace.

Summer eh? Not on the mountains.

I reached the city by the time the sun was high. By then, I had come down out of snow altitude and walked through warm summer forests until I reached the ruin.

Here's what I saw.

What struck me first was the wall. They're over ten blocks high, all of stone brick and topped with chiseled brick, and capped off with battlements. The gates were once iron bars, but time had rusted them away. I was able to pass through unhindered.

Within, the city wasn't so grand.

The roads were all smoothly cobbled over, but they were pitted and broken. Some houses still stood- huge brick or wood townhouses still intact after ten thousand years. Others were piles of rubble. The destruction wasn't as bad closer to the walls, but it got worse as I approached the center.

In the center was a huge crater that started so suddenly, I almost tumbled straight in. It was a huge torque-shaped hole, like a wheel with a raised island in the center that somehow escaped destruction. There was a structure in the center- a golden shrine.

A very familiar-looking golden shrine.

One thing's for certain, they really did worship Herobrine at some point. There's just too much proof everywhere for it to be a trick. I don't know everything that Herobrine is capable of, but I doubt he would go this far.

Around the city there are these tall towers of stone brick capped with bright domes of stained glass. I've climbed a few already, and I've found a collection of note blocks in each. They all used to be on redstone circuits, so they would ring certain harmonies at specific intervals. It's a really cool clock system in the city, using these noteblock-towers as bell towers.

And then the palace.

This huge palace that I'm sitting in is on the opposite side of the crater that I entered the city on. It's truly the most magnificent structure I've ever encountered. It's all white pillars and graceful arches and stained glass in hues of blue and purple, and statues and fountains at every conjunction of corridors. In the main hall, I peeked in a few minutes ago to see massive flame-colored skylights that turn the entire room the colors of the sunset.

Dragon would love to see this.

I haven't explored the rest of the palace yet, but I'm sure it's incredible. I'll write as I go along-

...

Wait, what was that?

* * *

I thought I heard something. I'm in the main corridor right outside of the throne room. I think. What could it be?

...

Oh, Notch help me, it's Him! I'll write more when I can.


	6. Entry Six

**Date: Unknown. Frankly, I don't even know if it's still 10181.**

**Exact location unknown. **

**Somewhere in the Nether in a dank, hot, brick cell. **

I don't think I need to say again that I'm in the Nether. I don't know how long I've been down here, and I don't know if I'm ever going to be let out. It's unbearably hot and it's dark down here, and I'm hungry and parched.

Funny, I actually _wanted _to come here before I started this journal.

You know, I'm surprised I actually have my journal with me now. It was the strangest thing- just a few days...or I think it was days... after Herobrine killed me in cold blood, he came by my cell and just tossed in the journal with its quill through the bars. Then he walked away without a word. He didn't look at me, and he didn't try to intimidate me. I just let this thing sit on the floor for a few minutes before deciding that I was too bored to pass it up.

So, I started writing again.

I suppose I should start with how I ended up down here.

Well, here goes nothing.

* * *

My last entry left off with me spotting Herobrine off in the throne room. I was in too much of a hurry to write down what I saw just then- I'll write that now.

I didn't see him at first. I was just about to go walking right into the room when I heard something. It was a sharp snapping sound, like a breaking stone or the slap of a whip on something. I thought something within the structure was collapsing when I heard it.

Then I heard a cry of pain.

I recognized the voice as soon as I heard it- masculine, tenor, and contorted into the sound of sharp pain. It was overlaid with an erratic burbling that I recognized to be the voices of Endermen.

Peeking around the corner, I saw something I never expected in my life to see. I immediately retreated back and flattened against the wall, heart pounding.

Herobrine was in there, all right. But he wasn't... well, first of all, he was kneeling. On the floor. Barely holding himself up leaning on his sword planted down point-first on the tile.

And surrounding him were five Endermen, their claws bloody. Likely, they'd been hurting Herobrine. But the scratches and scores I had seen looked superficial to me- they were already healing. From the way Herobrine shook and jerked, he seemed to be fighting an agony seated inside himself, not on his skin.

_What _in all Notch- blessed creation this meant, I still don't know. All that I do know is that that scene drove me to do something I now regret.

My mind flashed back to what I had read in the _Chronicles_ and to what Herobrine had said in the Great Library. Something about both events struck me as odd- there was always something missing. What made Herobrine lose control in the first place? Why was he interested in the truth being found? He had acted so differently when he spoke to me then- he had given me a warning, that our next meeting would be different. Is this what he meant?

Herobrine cried out again- a low growl that crescendoed into a roar of pain. I heard something metallic skid across the floor and clatter down. Herobrine was panting now. The Endermen exploded into agitated chattering- it sounded almost taunting.

I peeked around the corner again. The Endermen were well out of arm's reach around Herobrine, and Herobrine himself was now on hands and feet, his sword flat on the floor. He gave one of the Endermen a hateful look, eyes glowering.

"I... have not forgotten the oath!" Herobrine muttered in a strained voice. Another groan of pain, and another cloud of Enderman chatter.

"I will!" Herobrine gasped. Suddenly as if struck by an unseen force, he screamed outright, and I saw him fall over sideways and curl up. "I WILL!" I winced despite myself. Herobrine was an incredibly strong being- I could only wonder how much pain it would take to make him scrabble on the ground like an animal.

Wait a second- what was hurting him? The Endermen were well out of reach, and I couldn't see or hear any other creatures. Again, I was frustrated by a missing piece. There was something else out there that I didn't know about that was causing this. There had to be.

"Why do you doubt me?!" Herobrine exclaimed. "I will finish what I began!" I cringed and flattened myself out of sight again. His voice had changed just then, going from the tone I had heard in the library to that sneering voice that had taunted me in the burning village. Something had just changed, but I didn't know what.

I had to do something. There was some powerful force at work here- powerful enough to bring Herobrine brother of Notch to his knees. I didn't know what I was up against, but I figured that I could at least start somewhere.

The Endermen, for example.

Pulling out two buckets of water from my inventory- I had grown wise since my last encounter with them- I swung around the corner and threw them as high as I could. The buckets crashed down at opposite sides of the circle of Endermen, and the water flowed quickly. Five Ender voices screamed in unison, and the creatures vanished in a flurry of purple sparks. I watched from the entryway, frozen in my tracks. The Endermen were gone... now what?

Only Herobrine remained by then, back on his knees and leaning on the hilt of his sword with both hands, his forehead resting on the pommel. I unfroze my limbs and carefully approached him, praying that I wasn't too late- and more importantly, that I had made the right choice.

Something caught me around the throat and all of a sudden I was hovering in the air, purple bands of fire wrapped tightly around my wrists, ankles, and of course, my neck. Herobrine slowly stood up shook water out of his hair as he turned, looking at me with eyes blazing.

I _told _you I regretted that.

The neckband choked back my gasp of surprise. Herobrine glared at me with eyes like coals on a fire, and I glared right back out of my shock. I had just tried to help him, thank you! Confusion and indignation kept my fear at bay- I still had no idea what exactly was happening. The nagging came back- I was onto something still, but I wasn't exactly in the right situation to appreciate something like that.

"Would you like to see the story behind this city?" Herobrine asked softly. With the neckband tight enough to strangle, I was unable to answer. Instead, I focused on breathing as much as I could past the crushing force. It seemed like a very important thing to be doing right then.

Suddenly, Herobrine raised one arm and I shot straight up through a gap in the roof. Unable to turn my head, I strained my eyes and watched in terror as the ground fell away beneath me at breathtaking speed. Herobrine lazily floated up to come alongside me.

The angle of my body changed, flipping me down so that I stared straight down at the ground. My stomach clenched and I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that I wouldn't get sick from the height.

"Watch," Herobrine hissed, and my eyes were forced open by some pulling force I couldn't see- probably more of those magical chords.

The ruins below me rippled dizzyingly, and they changed into the scene of an open, empty plain. There were many small figures milling about, cutting down trees and laying stone foundations. I recognized the figure of Herobrine within the illusion, and the ones with him were probably Sons of Steve. The scene changed, and I could see the entire city in its heyday, in all its splendor. There, in the middle of it all, was Herobrine again.

Then the scene changed again. This time, the peaceful people were running through the streets in an angry mob, threatening Herobrine and all his followers with death. Several groups of Steves mounted on horseback fled beyond the city walls while Herobrine went out to face the mob mounted on a huge black horse. The mob drew back for a few moments, and then attacked.

"Surprised?" Herobrine asked. I strained my eyes to look over at him, but his gaze was fixated below. The scene continued to shift, each time showing greater distress. Steves fought Herobrine, and then each other. Then zombies and skeletons rose up out of the ground, and all who were pushed outside the city walls were torn to pieces. Peace reached the city- briefly. A huge force rose up all of a sudden and stormed the palace, and an explosion wracked the entire building. Something went wrong, because the Steves started fighting each other in hordes, with awful results.

The scene vanished.

"You will have read about this by now, I presume," Herobrine muttered from beside me. "I showed you what was to be known as the opening battles of the Ender War- a great war not fought by me against my creation, but by my creation against me. See how they destroyed everything I built for them! The palace, the walls, the beautiful temples and homes..."

Herobrine trailed off, eyes glowing dangerously.

"And when all else failed, I vowed to destroy them. I gave them warning again and again and again, and still they did not heed me. They became greedy and cruel, the destroyers of the world rather than the builders they were meant to be. And then the day came! This day came, and I seized my chance of saving the world. It was all I could do!" Herobrine's face darkened.

"And Notch would not help me." He spat. "My own brother abandoned me in my time of greatest need. I had to take matters into my own hands in that darkest hour. I did what was just! And how did he repay me? How did the all-knowing Notch reward my desperation? Exile. Eternal suffering and exile."

The neckband tightened, and I my mouth went wide, my chest heaving and unable to pull anything in. I couldn't breathe.

"I am not the one to blame for this!" Herobrine snarled. "This tragedy is his fault. His treachery!" Slowly, we began to lower to the ground. Herobrine kept talking. "I swore to make every last one of you pay for this, for what you had done. You, your precious friends, and last of all, Notch."

We were close enough to the ground by then for me to see something on the ground. It looked like a flat frame of obsidian, a rectangle to be exact...

A portal! Wait, a horizontal one? How- No, it didn't matter. My oxygen-depraved mind reached that conclusion just as Herobrine started talking again.

"I swore an oath to make you pay," Herobrine said, activating the portal with a wave of his hand.

"And I will make every last one of you _pay._"

Unable to make the slightest sound, I was dropped down and into the portal.

* * *

I'm not finished writing down everything that has happened yet, but I need to sleep. There's no way to describe how hot it is in here, and the heat and the thirst and the hunger would make anyone weak. And especially drowsy. My hands are getting shaky anyway. I'll write more when I wake up. Maybe something will happen by then. The journal is a nice relief, but in this barren cell, my mind is beginning to play tricks. I don't care what, I just need _something _to happen.

Anything to break the monotony.


	7. Entry Seven

**Date: Unknown... I still hope it's 10181.**

**Somewhere in the Nether**

**Still in this Notch-blasted cell.**

Continued from yesterday.

* * *

The heat is the first thing that I can recall perfectly as I think of when I free-fell through the Nether portal. The swirling, noxious fumes of the portal took me in and twisted me to pieces and then put me back together and spat me out on the other side, in this dark, smoky abyss roiling with heat.

All of a sudden free of the magical chains Herobrine had been using to hold me, I found the voice to scream, the sound echoing thinly in the hot air. The scream was cut off when I hit the ground, shoulder first, with something painfully wrenching the wrong way as the rest of me thudded down. I cried out again shortly and gagged on pain.

Immediately, I struggled to my feet. The stone was fiercely hot, sending a slick sweat springing up all over me and burning my bare skin an angry red where it touched down. Gasping on the heavy, sulfuric air, I dizzily staggered to my feet and tried to take stock of my surroundings.

My eyes slowly began to adjust to the dim, and I could make out the fuzzy shapes of large rock formations through a thick red haze that blanketed over everything. I was in a large, cavernous space with no sky and the glimmer of fire here and there or the bitter glow of lava streams. There wasn't much light, but a little illumination leaked from between cracks in the stone, where I could see tight clusters of crystals packed together and filtering a bright yellow light through the haze.

I shuffled a few steps forward, sending up puffs of red rock dust as I went. Without warning, my foot skidded off the solid rock and into something soft that gripped and pulled. With a cry of surprise, I jerked on my foot but it was stuck fast. Clenching my jaw, I braced myself as well as I could and pulled, inching my foot out until it suddenly snapped free and sent my flying back onto the rock, banging my face.

Eyes wide, I looked back and saw a pit of dark, shifting sands that gave a soft murmuring sound as they slid back to fill the gap my foot had left. Coughing on all the dust I had stirred up, I struggled to my feet again and picked my footing more carefully.

A loud, low, rhythmic sound echoed across the space, and I turned back towards the portal with a sinking feeling. The sound shifted as it got louder, gaining speed and rising in pitch. I realized what it was with a shock- Herobrine! That was his laugh!

Part of me wasn't surprised. He dropped me down here, didn't he? Of course he would follow to finish the job.

Adrenaline poured into my system and my heart began to pound wildly. Snapped back to my senses, I turned and ran, only just catching a glimpse of white eyes as I flew around a pile of rock that blocked my peripheral view of the portal.

I could hear him clearly now over the blood pounding in my ears. I could hear as he thumped down to the ground, and I could feel the rumble through my feet in the stone, the rumble followed by the ominous silence that meant he had destroyed the portal and my only way home.

Now I could hear him gaining on me as I tore across the Nether as fast as I could.

Somewhere up ahead there was a gap between two standing stones. Putting on an extra burst of speed, I turned and aimed dead for it. I didn't know what was beyond it, and frankly, I didn't care to think that far ahead. I could be dead before I reached it. Just a few more steps, I encouraged myself as I leaped over another patch of those shifting sands, just few more steps...

"You are trapped...and yet you still _run?" _Herobrine huffed from behind me, his voice gruff with the lilt of a wolfish grin in his tone. My foot skidded when I heard this, and I nearly bit my tongue when my foot slammed down into a hole I didn't see. Freeing my foot before it could slow me down, I pushed even harder and leaped headfirst into the gap.

Stone struck stone and debris hailed down at me. I yelled and ducked, covering my head with both arms without daring to slow down as dust and scree peppered me from behind. Herobrine had used his sword to slash at me and missed -deliberately-, hitting the stone instead. My feet slipped on the Netherrack when the path angled sharply down, and I began to fall. Curling up, I tried to control my fall and rolled, barking my already wrenched left shoulder as I fell. The ground rushed up and I went down hard, my breath knocked out of me and hot pain blading across my back and down my arm. I refused to scream.

Herobrine laughed from behind me.

Legs heavy, I picked myself up and struggled on, using the high walls around me for support. As the adrenaline drained from my system, I kept on running doggedly out of sheer panic and a vague determination that I would somehow find a way to escape. With this in mind, I kept on for hours.

A stupid hope, I know.

At some point, I realized that I could no longer hear Herobrine behind me. I wanted to stop- _Notch _only knows how tired I was- but my instincts screamed not to. I couldn't hear him, but I could _feel _him. His oppressive presence was still there, and I still had that awful feeling of helplessness that I had only ever gotten around him, and him alone...

Without warning, my foot turned on a loose stone and I fell forward with a cry, putting my hands out to break my fall. The rough netherrack scraped my palms as I crashed down flat and lay still for several moments, hearing my ragged gasps rasp against the stone and the dust. In fact, I wasn't able to get up for a painfully long time, with my limbs aching limbs clenching and cramping with lactic acid. Groaning, I began to struggle back up off the baking hot netherrack, pushing up with both arms and being careful with my throbbing shoulder.

The ground disappeared under my left hand.

I gasped in surprise as my hand punched straight through the thin crust of stone, and then I slammed back down, hitting my face. A searing, burning pain raced up my arm and the smell of burning copper filled the air in a loud bubbling rumble. A lava pit.

A _shallow, near-the-surface _lava pit.

Screaming outright, I rolled away and yanked my flaming arm out of the hole I had made and tucked it close to my body, rolling back and forth to douse the fire. Desperately, I scrabbled at the bindings on the charred leather gauntlet on the burned hand and yanked it off, letting it bounce away and roll to a stop near the edge of the new lava pit. That stopped the worst of the burning.

The gauntlet had taken the brunt of the harm, being the only thing to catch fire. My arm was red and forming blisters around the elbow and between the fingers of my left hand where the leather was thinnest. Swallowing hard, I wiped the sweat out off my eyes with my good hand and slowly stumbled back to my feet. Staring at the ruined gauntlet distastefully, I decided that it wouldn't be worth saving. Hooking a toe under the blackened leather, I kicked it into the hole and watched it crumble into the sticky, glowing lava and send up a thin stream of greasy black smoke as it burned.

I set off again, but this time at a slower pace. I had somehow recovered the presence of mind to realize that running at such a maddening pace in this heat would get me killed. So, peering off into the thick red haze, I picked a direction and trudged on, cradling my burned arm and leaving my destroyed gauntlet behind.

I can't say for sure just how long I traveled, or how far. The bleak landscape of the Nether began to look the same after a while, with the same caves and valleys and heart-stopping drops into pits or off cliffs or into lava. My clock and compass were both spinning wildly in circles, and I had lost all sense of time. I wandered on and on, lost and dazed.

And very much in denial.

The Nether conditions rapidly wore me out, and I had to rest often. I packed my cloak away in my inventory after finding it too hot, and only took it out again to sleep on. Of course, I was too worried about being caught to actually sleep. I rested only under the cover of a cave or overhang, and ate and drank only as I walked, keeping a careful eye about me.

This served me well, as I discovered soon enough.

The Nether, you see, as hostile and unlivable as it seems, is not entirely devoid of life. From the start I was able to hear the distant grunts and screams of one creature or another above the ever-present crackling of fire and rasping of the hot, dry wind across the reddish stone. I had hoped to avoid any close encounters.

That hope was instantly dashed when a fireball skidded across my path.

I leaped aside as quickly as I could and narrowly avoided getting blown up on the spot when the fireball blew. Heart racing, I immediately thought of Herobrine and wondered, with a sinking feeling, how he had already found me. Instinctively, I reached back for my bow slung across my back and immediately regretted it. Sharp, jabbing pain laced down my arm as a painful reminder that my shoulder hadn't healed yet. Hugging my left arm to my chest, I drew _Firefall _with my right and flattened myself behind a tall crag of rock, peeking back at my attacker.

To my immense relief, it wasn't Herobrine. Instead, there floated a...well, a giant floating pile of dusty gold sticks. It was a creature made up entirely of a floating head hovering over two rows of rods that rotated around the center.

The _Chronicles_ called creatures like this "Blazes". I found out why the next moment.

The blaze floated a little closer and growled at me, a sound that was like a blast of steam blown through a metal pipe. I could see the head clearly now, an orb wreathed in fire that bounced up and down over the rods. But as I watched, the two eyespots turned towards me and flames ignited all over the creature, whooshing up between the rods. That meant it was going to attack. I gulped and got ready to move.

A fireball flew dead at me. I gathered myself and sprang, letting the fireball explode where I was just a fraction of a second ago. Two more followed in rapid succession, chasing after me and nearly blasting me off my feet as I ran in a wide arc around the creature. Hefting _Firefall _one-handed, I turned and took a running leap, slashing down hard.

Diamond cracked down on gold and the flames died down on the blaze as several of the rods fell away broken. It blew a puff of hot air at me, but no more fireballs came. Pulling free, I stabbed again as hard as I could with just one good arm and struck between the eyes. The blaze gave one last metallic gasping cry and vanished in a cloud of white smoke.

That blaze was down, but I could hear others nearby. Taking cover under a low overhang of rock, I fished out my polished iron helm from my inventory and quickly tied my hair back, settling the helm on my head. Wiping my sweating palms on the rough rock, I rolled back out of my hiding place and retrieved my sword, jogging in the direction that I hoped led away from the blazes.

My path took me up a rise where I was able to see where the blazes had come from. At the base of the hill, across a narrow moat of lava, there was a dark brick tower with a small block on a pedestal- the kind that I recognized from dungeons in the Overworld. A spawner. The blaze had come from that and spotted me where I had been walking in a little valley. From my vantage point, I could see a walled-in causeway leading from the tower into a sea of lava, threading its way over the boiling stone below to a massive fortress in the distance.

I swallowed. There was no mistaking who that fortress belonged to.

Easing down the other side of the hill, I began to seriously consider what to do. I couldn't build a portal back home- I didn't have the resources I needed. Defeating Herobrine was _well _out of the question. But then I thought of something that I hadn't dared think about in weeks.

Dragon was here.

It only made sense that if he had been kidnapped and taken to the Nether that he would be in the Nether fortress. I knew that I couldn't wander around the Nether forever- Herobrine would just find me eventually. So, sword in hand, I set off towards the only real goal I had had since falling into this Notch-forsaken place: Finding Dragon.

The cavern overhead arced down and walled off all view of and path to the fortress except for a small window, and the only way to get through that was to go through the blazes. There was no clear way to reach the fortress, with nothing but solid, sheer walls on all sides and a sea of lava barring all attempts at entry.

But hidden in a cleft in the cavern wall, I found a path of dark bricks leading into a tunnel through the wall. Sheathing my sword, I cautiously stepped onto the path, slipping into the tunnel.

I almost cried with relief once inside. The temperature inside the tunnel was at least a dozen degrees cooler than outside, with the bricks paving the path radiating blissful cool. The tunnel itself stretched on for dozens of yards, and the path thrust out onto a bridge spanning the lava on the other side of the walls. I could hear it bubbling and popping where I was. With one last glance back to make sure I wasn't being followed, I set of down the tunnel and out onto the bridge.

I crossed out onto a hatchwork of bridges and causeways supported on piers dizzyingly high above the boiling seas glowing below. Navigating wasn't difficult- the paths were all laid out in a grid with only a few ruptures here and there. In just minutes, I had reached the gates of the fortress.

I gazed up at the heavy brick portcullis in wonder as I mounted the stairs into the fortress, marveling at the sheer scale of the structure. From the outside, the line of dark brick walls and towers seemed to stretch on forever. But now that I was inside, I was faced with a small tight corridor. I took a few wary steps inward- they didn't echo. Curious, I peeked around the corner into the next hall. It was the same.

From there, I began to search the fortress, looking for anything that might lead me to Dragon- a scrap of blue cloth, a prison cell where he might be kept,- but I found nothing. Nothing but those formless brick walls and floors and ceilings. It began to dawn on me after I turned to one dead end after another that this may be one very, very elaborate trap. Even if Herobrine wasn't inside the fortress, all he had to do was lead me here, and I would be trapped. This fortress, I realized as I tried to find my way out, had been deliberately built up to be monotonous with no landmarks.

It was a perfect labyrinth.

Panic rose in my throat, and I backpedaled, but it was too late. I was lost. There were no windows, no doors, nothing at all to show me a way out. Then I heard a sound that made me freeze.

Footsteps.

Peering around a corner, I saw the back of a tall, black-shirted figure disappear into a door at the end of a corridor. Definitely Herobrine. No mistaking that. Taking a deep breath, I turned and went the opposite direction.

The next turn I made seemed to be slightly luckier than the ones I had made earlier. This corridor had barred windows at intervals on one side, giving a magnificent view of a number of lava falls cascading into the seas outside. I hoped that this would mean a door or some other exit leading outside.

I knew now that there was no chance of me finding Dragon in here alive.

My luck ran out as quickly as it had come- the hall ended in a dead end with no door to the outside. Frustrated, I turned back the way I came and went down a different hallway, this one branching off into several side halls leading to Aether-knows-where. I walked quickly and focused on breathing evenly, listening to the even tapping of my boots hitting the bricks below.

"Looking for someone?" Herobrine sneered.

I gasped and whirled, stumbling back a few paces into the side of the hall.

Herobrine was standing _right next to me _in the mouth of a short side hall.

Regaining my senses, I backed up quickly and whipped _Firefall _from its sheath, rolling my left shoulder. I refused to think about what was happening, focusing only on my sword in my hand and the enemy slowly advancing before me.

Of course, some small part of me recalled my last battle and nagged at me. It told me that I wasn't going to win of course, this was _Herobrine. _How could I possibly win against a god? This was going to be another humiliation.

This was certainly going to hurt.

"You never cease to amaze me, Huntress," Herobrine said slowly, punctuating each word with one slow, deliberate step towards me. He extended one delicate, long-fingered hand to the side and I watched as his heavy black sword formed in his hand, hilt to tip.

I wasn't going to let him guide the battle this time.

Breathing evenly, I sprang forward and slashed hard, moving as fast as I could. My sword sliced right through him...and he vanished from sight.

An illusion.

A finger tapped my shoulder. I whirled and slashed again, but he parried my stroke and hit me dead in the throat with the stiffened fingers of his other hand. I stumbled back, choking, and he pounced.

I rolled away from the first stroke, but while I was still facing away from him and leaning on the wall to regain my balance, he struck hard and fast. From behind, his sword struck and sheared through my armor and through my good shoulder, protruding through the front where I could see it. I howled in pain, my sword slipping from my grasp and clattering to the floor.

He braced his hand against the flat of my back and pulled his sword out, leaving fresh pain in its wake. I groaned and sank to my knees, dizzy as blood slicked down my chest, clotting on my chain mail. I scrabbled for my sword with my left hand, hissing as the muscles of the wrenched shoulder twisted and protested. The sword was unsteady in my less dextrous hand, the hilt slippery with blood. Gasping for air, I struggled to my feet again, using the wall for support.

"Whenever you're ready, Son of Steve," Herobrine called in a mock friendly tone from behind. I clenched my teeth and turned to face him, my right arm hugged tightly to my side. I knew exactly what he was doing to me, and gave him a look of sheer hatred.

He was toying with me. He could have killed me at least sixteen times over now, and instead he was letting me stand up and wear myself out against him.

I wasn't going to have it.

Holding _Firefall _carefully, I paced around him, and we circled briefly. Before we had completed a full circuit, I charged, aiming more for his sword arm than his torso. He parried the blow almost carelessly, raising an eyebrow patronizingly.

"Wise, but you'll have to do better than that." He said, and then he seemed to stop and consider something as he parried another blow without even looking at me. "In fact," he began, and suddenly his free arm snapped out as quick as a viper.

My surprised cry was cut off as his fingers closed around my throat, iron-hard. He lifted me up in the air briefly and slammed me against the wall, forcing me to lose my grip on _Firefall. _Eyes wide, I grasped the arm he was holding me with with my good arm and used it as leverage to kick out at him. He dodged my helpless struggles gracefully, swinging his hips outwards and then pulling me close, close enough that our faces almost touched. His jaw-length hair fell forward as he leaned in towards me, brushing the sides of my face.

"You should learn when the proper time is to give up, brave little Huntress," he whispered in my ear. Then he lifted me up again and slammed me back against the wall. My head cracked against the bricks, sending a starburst across my vision that didn't quite fade. My chest was beginning to burn from lack of air. I couldn't find the strength to try and kick him again. My body wouldn't respond. But as he cocked his head to regard me, I decided that I couldn't give up just yet.

I worked up a mouthful of blood and saliva and spat it in his face.

Herobrine's head jerked back as if in surprise, and he wiped his face with the back of the hand that still held his sword, examining it. Without warning, the iron grip around my throat was gone and, without support, I fell to the ground. My legs buckled beneath me and I fell at Herobrine's feet, gasping. He sighed.

"I see 'giving up' is a concept completely foreign to you," he mused as he watched me reach for my sword. With one nonchalant foot, he kicked the diamond sword out of my reach, sending it skidding down the corridor. I mentally swore. "No matter then-" His foot landed heavily on the small of my back and I involuntarily froze, knowing what was coming.

"You'll make nice company for your friend Dragon, at least."

The sword whooshed down.

* * *

My fingers are cramping already. I'll write more when-

Wait, there's someone else down here.

I'll write more later.

* * *

**Hello, and welcome back to another session of Amanda the Huntress's final notes to a Huntress's Tale chapter after a looooog hiatus. I know, I know. It's been NaNoWrMo prep season and BOY have I been busy! Luckily, I still found time to squeeze in this new and exciting chapter, didn't I, my darling loyal readers? **

**As a farewell note, I would like to remind you to kindly leave a review if you enjoyed this chapter, or if you didn't, leave a review anyway. This was a nice chapter, no? Lots of action, lots of fun, Oh-God-what-next sort of feelings for Huntress. **

**By the way, have you been checking up on my friend BlackDragon41 or QueenCelina33 lately? They have been out a while and are just back to publishing now too. It's been killer for all of us, but we're all back, so go check out what they've written too! I'm not the only _positively fabulous _Herobrine fanfic writer on this site, after all!**

**In summary, Please leave a FOLLOW if you want more and a REVIEW if you enjoyed and I will see you later, my friends!**

**Huntress out.**


	8. Entry Eight

**Date: I no longer care**

**Somewhere in the Nether**

**Still in a cell in Herobrine's fortress, as usual.**

I broke off very suddenly yesterday, didn't I?

Well, you see, I discovered that I had a neighbor yesterday. Here's how it went.

I was writing in my journal when I heard talking from the other side of the wall. One voice was Herobrine, I could tell, but the other one was also extremely familiar. When my mind filtered out the wheezing and strain, I realized just who it was who had been living right next door to me for some time now: Dragon.

As soon as I heard Herobrine leave, I went up to the wall and kicked it several times, calling out to get Dragon's attention. Immediately, he replied.

"Huntress!" He exclaimed, and then immediately broke off coughing. As soon as he recovered, I heard him tap on the wall. "Is it really you? How are you here?"

"Hang on," I replied, looking for some sort of opening. I was elated! This was the first time I had seen Dragon in months! After my flight and capture in the Nether, I was sure that I would never see him again, and now here he was, just as Herobrine had said. It struck me as odd that he would afford such a small kindness as to put me next to Dragon like this.

"No, Huntress, I need you to answer me." Dragon's voice was pleading. "How are you down here? _How did he get you?_"

One of the bricks was loose. I began to work at the mortar with my fingernails as carefully as I could, chipping away a few grains at a time. "Hold _on. _It's almost out-" The brick pulled free, and I flapped my hand through the opening. "There."

Dragon was at the opening in an instant, grasping hold of my hand like a lifeline. He pressed his face up as close as he could to the opening, his bright blue eyes shining in the light of the glowstone crystals. "Now can you tell me?" he asked.

"It's a long story." I warned him, and he shot me a perfectly innocent look.

"I have time," he said, his face straight, but I noticed tiny wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. He was trying not to smile. He always did that when I thought he was being clever. I loved it when he made that kind of face, and my heart lifted to see him doing the same even here.

"Where do you want me to start?" I asked, and Dragon drew away from the opening for a moment, releasing my hand. I looked down and saw that he had settled himself into a seated position against the wall on the floor.

"I want to know everything. Everything that's happened since I've been gone."

"Oookay," I said, and then retrieved my journal, using it as a guide to jog my memory.

"So everything started when the village priest summoned me from FireForge..."

* * *

I told the entire story as I had it written here in the journal. It took a long time, and by the end of it, I was croaking from lack of water. No one came to bother us, luckily enough. I glazed over some of the details here and there, not wanting to describe fully the massacre or my last battle with Herobrine. The memory of the black sword cutting through my flesh made me shudder.

Eventually, Dragon let me know he was going to take a nap, and I set the journal aside and let him. Replacing the brick, I settled down to sleep myself.

Then I realized that I was too restless.

I decided to write some, and have been writing since then. I really don't have that much else to do. I've been counting the exact number of bricks used to build the floor and walls in this room, and I've been trying to find the coolest part of the floor to lay on. It's the corner opposite to the wall with the loose brick, by the way.

I've run out of recent things to write, but I've come to realize that I've left out a vital part of my tale.

If anyone ever gets to reading this, I might as well have it in here somewhere.

Have you ever wondered how we Steves came into being?

None of us know exactly where we came from in the very beginning. Some say we were sent directly from Notch, others say we were alive long before and went into a coma of sorts, waking up these many years later. No one can really explain it...it's as if we just sprung up from the ground.

We awoke knowing how to speak and to read, and how to use our inventories, but there is much we still had to learn when we awoke. We also all awoke in different locations, drawn together purely by chance to the same village. We didn't know about our ability to respawn until tragedy struck and Wolf awoke with a start back in bed, safe in his house, shaken but okay.

Well, let me go back.

This is the very first thing I can ever remember: The bright blue expanse of the sky above me.

It was morning when I first opened my eyes to this strange new world. The sky was clear and blue, and a gentle breeze was blowing, sifting through the grass and teasing across my skin and hair. I was disoriented when I first awoke and tried to stand- my balance was bad on the first try and I fell over and had to try again. When I finally could stand up, I stood there blinking for a few moments, trying to gather my thoughts.

Who was I?

Somehow, I could not answer this question. I had no memory of who I was or how I had gotten here, or even what my own name might be. Where was I? I looked around, but nothing was familiar.

I stood in a field, one on a gentle downhill slope with a few trees scattered here and there. The forest grew denser uphill, and opened up downhill. I could hear water from somewhere down there. I looked closely at the tree nearest to me- it had white bark, dappled with black. A birch tree. Then I stopped. How had I known that? What was this place?

Shaking off those questions, I started downhill. I came to the banks of a slow-moving river, with smooth sands and reeds growing just short of the water. On the other side of the lazy waters stretched a flat, empty plain that went on for miles. Breathing in the clean, water-scented air, I leaned back against a tree and sighed. This place was so peaceful, so beautiful. But what was I doing here? The peace made me restless.

On impulse, I turned and struck the tree. Cracks appeared. If I tried to explain to you how I knew what I was doing, or why, I would be at a loss for words. I just don't know. Whatever it was that drove me, I kept hitting it until a section of the tree popped out and shrank into a palm-sized fragment, one that I could put away in my inventory. The rest of the tree stayed right where it was, floating in midair.

I have learned now that this is our unique ability, that when villagers cut wood, the rest of the tree falls and must be cut up and carried back in uneven chunks. Not so for us. They say we are able to manipulate matter on a higher level, closer to the capabilities of the gods. I always scoff at this.

I cut more wood that day and experimented with it, learning to split wood into planks, and rearrange planks into a worktable that I could use to build other things on. I learned how to make a pickaxe tool with which I was able to dig through hard stone and ores that could not be dug by hand. Packing up my things, I traveled along the river, gathering wood and exposed ores as the day went on.

My first lesson of the harsh realities of the world came when I was just about to stop and try to build something else, when I suddenly realized something critical: It had just gotten significantly darker.

A deep-seated sense of trepadation started somewhere in my gut and worked its way upwards. Some natural instinct was taking over and I suddenly started looking for a place to take shelter as the light faded faster and faster. There was nothing but open plain and the river. Packing up my things, I hefted my wooden pickaxe and kept walking, keeping an eye out behind me.

The stars came out and the sky faded from blue to navy to black. Everything took on a deathly quiet, and I knew somehow that I was in trouble.

Then I heard the growling behind me, and I was overwhelmed with dread. I turned around.

A hideous green rotting..._thing _in tattered clothing was there, stumbling and snarling and coming right my way. My eyes went wide, and the first thing on my mind wasn't fighting or running, it was that I was about to be eaten. I remember clearly now this first encounter with a monster of the night: I was scared, and very, very clumsy. As the zombie stepped closer with its rotting arms extended to grab me, I took a step or three backwards...right into the river. I slipped on the wet sand and fell flat on my back into the water, my face going under the surface. When I came up coughing, the zombie attacked.

Terrified for my life, I swung my pickaxe as hard as I could and it sunk deep into the creature's middle. I stumbled, off-balance from the force of the blow, and quickly struggled to regain my footing and my weapon. The zombie was clawing at my ankle- I scrambled away and furiously swung down at it again and again, tearing up the undead corpse until it vanished into nothing more than white mist and strips of rotten flesh that washed away in the current. Panting, I looked around and saw that the nightmare had only just begun. Monsters were springing up everywhere, with every kind of zombie and walking skeleton and giant spider and quiet, plantlike things that would give an unsuspecting victim a nasty surprise if you let them get too close. I became all to familiar with them soon enough, but this first night I was wise. I didn't fight.

Instead, I stashed my pickaxe away in my inventory and took a deep breath, diving under the surface of the river and swimming for my life.

I swam on and on until the moon was high in the sky and I found what I was looking for: shelter. Dragging myself out of the water, I came upon a shallow cave in the high cliffs on the shores of the river and quickly made my way inside, curling up into a ball. More monsters were visible from where I sat, to my dismay. They were everywhere, and I was lucky that none of them here had noticed me. Panting and shivering from my ordeal, I blocked up the entrance to the cave with a few lumps of dirt and curled up to sleep, exhausted.

It was-

Someone's coming, I'll write more later.

* * *

All right, the danger is past now.

Herobrine came to give me a visit.

I was first warned by the footsteps in the hall. The fortress is so quiet and Notch-blasted dry, you could hear someone sneezing through eight walls. I swear.

I had just enough time to stash away my journal before there was a heavy metallic clanking and one wall of my cell lifted into the ceiling, revealing the open bars behind it. Herobrine stood on the other side, hand still resting on the lever. His eyes glowered dangerously in the dim light of the corridor, looking well out of place from the dreary surroundings. I got to my feet.

For a while, he said nothing.

This wouldn't be the first time Herobrine has visited me. He's come before for varying reasons, sometimes to talk, sometimes to interrogate. Once or twice, he's opened the wall to just look at me. I mean it- he would just open the wall and sit there and stare at me like an animal at a zoo. And then, of course, he had opened the wall to return my journal. He's undoubtedly read it, with some of the questions he would ask.

This time, he came with the intent to do more than just stand and stare. He looked calm and collected externally, but when I looked him in the eye, I saw a look of immense internal strife. Swallowing, I looked away. I didn't like that look, it was the kind that felt like he was ripping into my soul to see all the secrets hidden there. It was a look that meant he had questions and a nasty temper to boot. Never good. Herobrine is insane, yes, and for that his personality is positively erratic. You can't trust a single thing he does.

As I said, he had questioned me before. And if I didn't answer something to his liking, he had a tendency to get very angry. Very. I have a collection of bruises from our last few little 'talks'. Iron bars may keep me in, but they're no protection against his powers of fireballs and whatever other tricks he's got.

Keeping a pretense of casualness, Herobrine leaned against the wall and sat down, lazily curling one leg up to his chest and draping an arm over it.

"Why did you stop the Endermen?" he asked me smoothly, showing none of the emotion in his eyes. I looked at him quizzically, and his eyes narrowed impatiently. "In the ruins, where I captured you, why did you stop the Endermen?" He wanted an answer. I wouldn't be given time to think about this one.

"I..." I croaked. My voice was too dry. Swallowing a few times, I tried again with more success. "I was..." What was I doing? "I was acting on a hunch." Yes, that sounded about right. I _did _act on a hunch, one that said the Endermen had something to do with our predicament.

"What sort of...hunch?" Herobrine asked. I looked away from his piercing gaze, nervous.

"Something wasn't right," I began, and then mentally kicked myself. Such a _stupid _answer! "I... The Endermen..." I was stuttering again, with my thought stumbling over one another like headless chickens. This always happened when I tried to talk to Herobrine. When he looked at me with those glowing white eyes, so full of unbridled malice, I just went numb. His presence was unsettling at best. Now it was leaving me hopelessly frozen and tongue-tied. He's terrifying just _looking _at you. "They... they were torturing you. The Endermen. From everything I've read, everything I've been taught, that isn't right. They were supposed to be your subjects, according to the histories. But the _Chronicles_ said something different, that there was something wrong with them. That they..." I trailed off, unable to come up with the right thing to say.

Herobrine's eyes hardened. He stood slowly and curled his hands around the iron bars, not taking his eyes off of me. In my cell, there was nowhere to hide. I felt so venerable just standing there with him ready to blow.

"What makes you think the Endermen were my subjects?" he asked coldly.

"It's what I was _told,_" I retorted. "I was just trying to find the truth. Is that such a terrible thing?"

We stood still for a few heartbeats, just examining each other. I watched warily for any sign of attack, and he glared at me with Notch-knows-what going through his head. Abruptly, he turned and left, hitting the lever to shut the wall without saying another word. I blinked as the brick wall came crashing back down, shocked that it had ended so quickly.

Sinking back to the floor, I wondered blandly when I would be given anything to eat. Anything to shake the image of Herobrine's burning white eyes from my mind.

* * *

Now that that's over with, I still have more to tell of my earliest experiences.

Where was I? Ah-

It was a long night on that cold stone floor of the cave. I tossed and turned, sure that I would never sleep, until sleep crept up on me without me noticing.

I opened my eyes to hear birdsong. In total darkness, I felt my way to the dirt barrier and pulled out a few blocks, blinking in the bright daylight. It was morning, and the monsters of the night were all gone, either killed by the sun or gone into hiding. Taking down my barrier, I kept traveling.

I was extremely sore from a night spent on stone. This made walking difficult enough, and for a while, swimming was out of the question. Eventually, my muscles loosened up again and I was able to move more freely. When the sun was high, I stopped at a different location, eager to test out things that I had learned.

It was my curiosity that kept me alive as much as it got me into trouble. I spent most of my time on the move, but not out of fear. In fear, yes, I had to hole up every night and keep looking over my shoulder for anything hostile, but I learned quickly. I learned more in my first month than I had ever thought possible. I explored caves and stumbled upon ancient mines, discovering materials and experimenting with what I could make of them. I found jungles and tundras, traveling for miles on end whenever the urge seized me to move.

You see, I could have learned a lot more if I ever settled down, but there was something keeping me on the move. I was lonely in this enormous world, and for all the riches I found, all I really wanted was to find a person. A living, breathing, speaking person. There were ruins scattered everywhere of a former civilization- I found plenty of those- but there were no signs to be found of any people anywhere.

Then one day, I found them.

I was traveling across the plains, climbing over the gently rolling hills, when I saw something over the top of a ridge. It looked...wooden. Increasing my pace, I went to investigate, and discovered it was indeed wooden. A roof, shingled with oak. I broke into a run.

A town unfolded before me as I crested the ridge, spreading across the base of the ridge and filling a basin in the plains. There were houses, many of them, and a well in the center at the crossroads of the neat gravel streets, and a library and a church tower and a blacksmith filling the streets with the sound of his pounding.

Best of all, there were people. Dozens of people, milling about on the streets, running their daily errands and tending to their small log-fenced farms. A few children ran behind a house and saw me standing atop the ridge, and they stopped for a moment to stare before going back to their little game.

People. I sat down hard on the grassy hilltop.

Others came after I arrived. Other Steves, I mean. Other Sons of Steve, with inventories and the ability to respawn. There was one that came to the village before I even made it there before me, and he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. My first conversation with him was very interesting.

"My name is Dragon," he said after we exchanged startled greetings. "What's yours?"

His question confused me more than it should have. Name? What name? I hadn't been given a name by anyone, and I certainly didn't have one that I knew of.

"I don't have a name," I said, stuttering a little. Dragon smirked.

"You should probably think of one, then," he said, leaning against the doorframe of the house he was staying in. "I need something to call you." I looked away for a moment.

"Where did you get your name?" I asked, slightly miffed. Dragon's smirk widened into a smile.

"I made it up," he answered. "I named myself."

Ah.

"Huntress," I answered suddenly. "Call me Huntress."

That sounded good enough.

"Huntress it is," Dragon replied, holding out a hand. "Hungry?"

The others arrived within the next few weeks. Whether it was by chance that we were drawn together or by some unseen force or calling, I will never know. Anyway, we all came together, and we all thought of names for ourselves. Wolf came soon after I did, and then Rose three days after, riding bareback on a horse that she had tamed herself. Dawn came at sundown that very day, eyes bright and ready for adventure. Sky and Lee came last, traveling together and already up to the mischief that they would soon be known for.

Dragon proposed to build a city first. I immediately seconded the idea, but the others shook their heads. We didn't stay together long in those first few days. It took a long time for all of us to get to know each other as well as we do know, in fact. Anyway, Dragon began to build his city, and eventually, once we saw the walls go up in the distance, we came back together to help. Wolf would bring materials, and Sky and Lee would help design clever systems to power the city using the conductive red mineral they had found, calling it Redstone. I helped with the building itself, making the artistic mandalas in the squares and put up the beautiful stained glass windows in the central buildings. Before it was finished, though, wanderlust struck again. I set off to make a place of my own.

Dragon's city, the crystal city, was built as a collaborative effort of all of us, but FireForge was different. I built that city on my own, making it huge. It's almost as big as the crystal city, in fact. But it isn't as dense. I made it big and sprawling, inviting the open wilderness in before I built the walls. My mansion is just as grand as Dragon's, and I couldn't be more proud of it. It was years in the building, with all the underground systems and tall towers.

Anyway, not much happened to us beyond building and exploring up until we discovered that manuscript in the mineshaft, the one with the Nether portal diagram. I wish we had never found that manuscript. I wish we had never done this. I wish that chest had been swallowed up in lava.

And _Notch, _I wish I could just go home.

* * *

**Hi there, readers! Yes, my friends, it is December the First, meaning... (drumroll please,) NaNoWriMo is over at last! Trust me, it was hard! 50,000 words in 30 days is a most daunting task, but I did it! I have my certificate and my winner's status, and now I can get back to my fun writing! **

**I missed you guys. **

**Anyway, I am glad to be back, and I hope you're glad to see me! REVIEW if you enjoyed (Please please please, I need my feedback!) and FAVORITE and FOLLOW if you want more where this came from! **

**Thank you for reading, welcome back my loyal readers, and I will see you next week! **

**Huntress out.**


	9. Entry Nine

**Date: Certainly still 10181. Thirty-fourth day of summer**

**The Overworld, on my way to the Temple of Notch**

**Taking shelter in a cave**

I'm still not sure how I feel about this, but I may as well write it down.

I've found that doing this helps with a lot.

Yes, I'm out of the Nether. It's been a while since I last wrote, and there's a lot of detail to write down. Dragon is with me, and we're somewhere in the spruce woods, holing up in a cave. We're free, headed for safety, and best of all, Herobrine gave us back _Firefall, _my diamond sword.

Oh, here we go again. I'm blabbering and getting ahead of myself without actually _explaining _myself.

Here goes.

* * *

It was a few days, or so I suppose, after my last entry when I was awakened from my not-so-peaceful nap by footsteps. They were distinctly not human, so it couldn't be Herobrine coming, but in the Nether, no company is good company. I shook myself awake and unsteadily got to my feet.

I had been given food and water the day before, but nothing since. That made for a very weak, shaky little Huntress. I didn't want to deal with any trouble right then.

Anyway, I had time to check on the loose brick on Dragon's wall- safely in place, luckily- before the corridor wall slid up into the roof, revealing a squad of dark, disproportionately tall skeletons. 'Wither' skeletons, as according to the _Chronicles. _Each one was armored in iron and armed with a sword, and they didn't look friendly in the least. I wondered what was happening when they marched into my cell and boxed around me.

One prodded me in the back with the tip of its sword as the rest of the group moved forward, out of the cell. A wordless but unmistakeable prompt to _go. _

Oh. They were taking me somewhere.

Lovely.

I obediently followed with the squad of wither skeletons, wary of the sharp swords each one held. They seemed calm enough, or at least under the control of something else, but no one in their right mind would trust a hostile mob not to do harm. At the same time, I tried to keep track of our position within the fortress. It could help me escape later, perhaps.

A useless venture, that was. I lost track after the sixth intersection and gave it up there.

We marched in silence, passing through the corridors of the fortress that all looked the same, the monotony broken at last by a room with a higher roof and a tall set of double doors on one wall. Further down, there was a smaller iron door, and it was to this one that the skeletons led me, and then stopped.

The door swung open of its own accord, revealing Herobrine sitting at a dark wooden desk scattered with papers and books, rapidly writing something down in one of them. I looked around quickly for a power source that could have opened the door, but there wasn't one. Herobrine had simply used his own power. He sat in a small, low-roofed room lined with bookshelves. There was a table off to the side of the door, and a window beside the solid desk, unglazed. It was closed in with bars instead, and they cast their subdued shadows on the floor.

"Enter," Herobrine said, without looking up. Cautious, I stepped forward inside the room, and the door slammed shut behind me, making me jump. My escort could be heard outside, moving away. Dismissed.

Herobrine finished his writing, closed the book, and pushed it aside, clasping his hands before him as he looked up at me. Absently, he flicked his head to get his long hair out of his eyes. Raising one graceful, long-fingered hand, he beckoned me forward.

"Come closer."

I did so.

Herobrine stood from the desk, wandering over to the window. It was a useless aesthetic gesture for the room- it showed nothing but a bare patch of netherrack and a small pool of lava outside. Pitiful view from here. Besides, it was bringing in an uncomfortably warm draft. Sweat was already forming on my skin.

"Do you want to know why I was banished to the Nether?" Herobrine asked dimly, almost to himself in a musing tone. I swallowed and stayed silent. He waited for a moment, then glanced over at me. "Worried I might harm you again? Don't be. Speak freely, please." I exhaled and looked away.

Herobrine smiled.

"Very well, then. I understand that you were taught it was for my crimes against the Overworld," Herobrine began, in a clearer tone and facing me fully. "Yes?" I nodded. It was a simple statement of fact.

"There is another reason," he continued, "One that runs deeper. One I want you to understand." He picked up a leather-bound book from his desktop and briefly ran a hand over the cover, wiping away a trace of dust. _The Book of Herobrine. _"Remember when I showed you where to find this? It wasn't for you." I stared at him. "It was for me."

"I'm not sure I understand..." I began, my voice coming out more broken than I thought it would. Coughing into my fist, I swallowed a few times and hoped it would help.

"Let me start from the beginning," Herobrine said. "You will understand it more easily that way. You see, I was banished not for my crimes, but for my madness. Something else had hold of me, something that drove me to such terrible deeds. You read of the opening battles of the Ender Wars in the _Chronicles,_ no doubt. You know that the antagonism between myself and the Steve race did not begin with my deeds. However, something happened when I punished them."

"The madness."

"Yes. The madness. It was so sudden and so complete that it had to have been inflicted, rather than developing on its own. If that had been the case," Herobrine gave me a wry smile, "My brother would have put an end to me long ago."

"So why did you lead me to the library and the books?" I asked. Herobrine looked to the door.

"Didn't I say I would explain? Come with me." Breezing past me, he opened another door to his study and motioned for me to pass. Still wary, I eased through the door, trying to keep my distance. I didn't get far into the room before I looked up and stopped dead in my tracks.

The room I went into then, as far as I know now, is the main throne room. Let me tell you, it is totally unlike the rest of the fortress. It's massive, and is built almost entirely of white quarts, with chiseled flooring and narrow columns holding up graceful arches and vaults above. For most of the length of the hall, stained glass windows of purple and black soared from floor to roof, and at the end of the room, there was a raised dais of obsidian with an obsidian throne atop it. A purple runner ran the length of the room, leading up to the throne, and the hall was lit by chandeliers generously stocked with torches.

It was even more incredible than the palaces of the ancient Steve city, and that's saying something. After all of the heat and darkness of the Nether, here was a grand hall awash in heavenly light, a piece of the Aether in the most hostile of realms. It rocked me back on my heels, all right. I had never seen anything like it.

Herobrine saw me stop and laughed quietly.

"You like it?" He asked, gesturing at the chamber around us. "I've had a long time to build down here. That's all it takes, really. You don't need the power of a god to create something beautiful."

You can say that again.

Awed, I followed him as he went up to the dais and seated himself in his throne. Feeling somewhat awkward, I stayed below the dais and folded my hands behind my back.

"Can we get back to the subject?" I prompted, feeling somewhat impatient. Herobrine glared at me shortly.

"I will begin," he began in a warning tone, "with all that I can personally recall from the Ender Wars." That shut me up. I didn't want any more trouble from him if I could help it.

"I will have you know that the Steve race was my own creation," Herobrine said. "I created them simply for the joy of it, to watch them grow and learn. I helped them build their first city, and taught them how to farm and mine, and work the Overworld as their own. The city you saw was that first capital- Luminara. That was it's name, Luminara. The city of light.

"The war began with the treachery of the Steves. I know not why they changed, only that they did. They grew restless, but not in any healthy way. They grew greedy. They didn't want to go out and explore and build on land of their own. They wanted faster wealth. They wanted to take it from others. Often, innocent people would be killed as a result. Remember, this was before Notch bestowed to anything the ability to respawn. Each death was permanent. I could not allow such evil- I went to the extreme to protect the pure of heart from those that had turned to it. I created the monsters of the night, one fateful winter night. I showed you a riot in the Overworld- that happened as a reaction to that night. When things did not improve, I took away the source of greed. I collapsed mines, and closed down the city. Something had to change.

"More evils happened, and I convened with my brother with it. Notch questioned me on what I had done, and I answered truthfully. Surely he would understand! But he condemned my punishment as too harsh, and we became estranged after that. I asked for his help, but he refused it every time.

"I was left to deal with my fallen creations alone, and that was when I was approached by an Endermen. The unlikeliest of creatures for the time. The Endermen, you see, were created by Notch to be a sentinel race, meant to protect newly forming realms from outside threats. To see them in the Overworld again was highly unusual. I was wandering alone in the wilderness, pondering my fortune when it came, wanting to speak to me. Before they had all vanished back to the End, I had once been good friends with the race. I confided with the Endermen in my troubles, glad to tell someone.

"But the Enderman was not there as a friend, as I discovered. We spoke, but I quickly realized that it wanted something from me. When I angrily demanded that it explain itself in plain language, it explained that it and all of its race believed that the Steve race should be wiped out. I was shocked at the proposal, and immediately refused to do so. But it wasn't finished with me- the Enderman attacked me. I should have been able to defeat it easily. Yet when I tried to banish it back to the End, I found I could not.

"It was then that I knew I was betrayed. Notch had taken away my power for what I had done, and now I was defenseless against the Enderman. I defeated the first one, but others came. I was warned by an old friend only just in time for the ambush, and I used the last of my power to teleport to where I believed I would be safe.

"It was all for naught. I came to Kingshall, the palace of Luminara, but the enemy found me there, too. I had only moments to cry out with all of my strength to my brother, and then I was taken."

Herobrine broke off, his eyes clouded and focused off in the distance rather than at me. I sensed the incredible emotion he was feeling, and stayed wisely silent. After a long stretch of silence, he spoke once more.

"Never have I suffered a greater shame than my defeat there. It should not have happened, but my brother and I, I believe, were both deceived. That was the day I was driven fully insane." His voice grew quiet. "I cannot remember much after that, for the time I was in the full throes of madness, under the control of Light only knows what. I believe my enemy originated in or near the End, from the attacks of the Endermen and the type of magic that was used upon me. It's all I have to work with.

"When Notch finally found me, I was little more than a puppet. I cannot remember all of what transpired that day, although I have regained fragments now and again. All I remember is my hatred, a deep-seated loathing of Notch, for abandoning me, and of the creature that had me bound to its whim. In a way, I was justified in my hatred of my brother. It was, partially, his fault that I had fallen so far. Had he not left me powerless, perhaps I would not have lost my sanity and ultimately, my people. I lost everything from his betrayal. But perhaps none of this would have happened if he had not given my people his gift of free will, and there would have been no joy in that. I realize now what sort of trap we were caught in, but then, my reasoning mind was too far gone.

"How I cursed him when I fully awakened in this pit, for imprisoning me for what I saw as eternity, without my immortal power which he had no right to take from me." Herobrine sighed deeply. "It has been millennia since that day, and since then, my anger has cooled. All that remains is to fully cleanse myself of the effects of the End upon me. I have regained much of what I lost- my personality, my love of beauty at the least. My desire to create. I am better fortified against this madness now."

That was when my patience snapped. I fought back a snort of disbelief.

"Fortified?" I spat. "_Fortified? _If your evil comes from insanity, then why is Dragon's city in ruins? Why did you destroy the Temple village? _Why did you kill so many people?!_"

Herobrine leaped to his feet, eyes blazing.

"Hear me out, Huntress!" he roared, his voice changing abruptly and dropping at least an octave in pitch. My eyes widened and I took an involuntary step backward. "I did not say I was cured! When your friend opened the portal, he left me venerable again to the very force that drove me to insanity in the first place! I was not completely free, of my madness, or my anger, or any of my hatred! I still am not now! We are safe here from the source of my bane, but for how long? I am fortified enough to make a way to save myself, and no more!"

His last words echoed long after he fell silent, slumping back into his throne with a huff. I stood there right where I was, trembling slightly from unspent anticipation. I was fully expecting to get hurt after that, and the fact that I wasn't left me less relieved as much as it left me even more nervous. Herobrine rubbed one temple, and eventually he looked down at me again.

"Perhaps I do owe you an explanation," he said at last, his tone soft and almost defeated. His voice was back up in its usual range, without the godlike, earthshaking force behind it. "Let me tell you where you came into my plans.

"When I first felt the portal open, I also felt a weak trail of a powerful force that I recognized from long ago. I knew I had to act quickly, but I didn't have much time. I came out of the portal and into the Overworld with enough force and extradimensional energy to cause great destruction to the crystal city, all of it unintentional. I didn't even notice Dragon, at first. I sought out each and every one of your kind, marking each of you for watching before I went under again. I wrote the messages on the signposts, and when I realized I was being taken again, I found and took Dragon with me back to the Nether, closing the way behind me again.

"I knew after that that I would have to return, like it or no. The force behind my madness was still there, and I had to defeat it myself. I returned, checked my signmarkers, and found that you and you alone had reacted, looking first for answers rather than a fight. I cleared the way for you to find the answers you sought, and a few items I would need myself- the two holy books of the two creators, myself and Notch. Notch's book was written by human hands, but mine was written by my own. It had in it a personal record of everything leading up to my Fall. I would need it to recover the memories I had lost.

"I went under again, and somehow escaped by sheer force of will. You found me just as I was succumbing once more, but not quite. I was able to fool the force, whatever it was, this time, in faking madness again and allowing my actions to be guided by my old rage. But I succeeded in bringing you here, which was my goal. Now we can speak safely."

My brows furrowed. "What do you want with me now? What were you planning in the first place?" Herobrine just shook his head.

"I cannot tell you everything."

"Then at least tell me why I'm here!" I demanded.

Herobrine looked me in the eye, and whatever I was going to say melted away, drowned out by a more immediate panic. His eyes just have that kind of effect on you.

"You are here," he said slowly, deliberately, "because I would like to make a wager with you."

I blinked several times. A wager? "What do you mean by that?"

"I cannot enter the Overworld again," Herobrine explained. "Not while the threat is still fresh in the air. I need eyes and ears to find the source of my madness and the evil that has come upon the Overworld so that it can be destroyed. You acted quickly to save your world before. I am sure you will do it again."

I shifted my stance. "What would you have me do?" I didn't like this one bit.

"Since you are here, I want to strike a deal," Herobrine said, leaning back in his throne. "In exchange for your freedom, you are to go and search out the force that drove me mad and caused my Fall in the first place. It should be in the End- so here are the terms. Go to the End, investigate the conditions, and report back to me in thirty days. I will show you what you should see if everything is as it should be. Look for deviations from that. Does this sound fair to you?"

I swallowed and shook my head.

"I can't take this deal as it stands," I said, choosing my words carefully. I knew I was in an incredibly dangerous situation, but I had to make room to maneuver. How could I know Herobrine would uphold his side of the deal? I didn't feel that I could trust him on anything.

"Why?" Herobrine asked, sitting up again. "You wish to negotiate the terms?" Again, I shook my head.

"I need time to think."

Herobrine sighed.

"Very well," he said, and the squad of Wither skeletons came through the double-doors at the end of the hall as if on cue. "You will be given time to think. When you are ready, tell the guards outside your cell." Then he addressed the skeletons, now in formation around me. "Take her away."

The skeletons began to march me out of the throne room.

"And Huntress," Herobrine called after me. "For the sake of your friends, be sure to make the right choice."

* * *

Dragon wants to know when I'm going to put out the torch so we can go to sleep. I still have a lot of explaining left to do, but... well, I guess this makes for a good stopping point. I'll write more tomorrow. We're still a few days away from the Temple.

This is good night for now.

* * *

**And cut! (*snaps clapper*)  
**

**Well, this was a tricky chapter. Now I remember why I needed to rewrite so bad. Oh, the plot holes! Oh, the unavoidable character traps! **

**Some days I really hate writing. **

**As promised, this is part of the special holiday updates for all of my active stories. There will be updates on both this story and Chronicle today, tomorrow for New Years Eve, and then another (maybe) for New Years Day. Watch the feeds at midnight on New Years Eve! If all goes smoothly, I may just have teasers ready! **

**Anyway, as rewriting goes, this is a lot of chapter to squeeze out of the former story's... three paragraphs on the scene. Or so it seemed. Wow, I just didn't have it fleshed out. Well, now I do. I hope you enjoyed this entry of Huntress's Tale, and watch Chronicle for updates later today, too! (Remember, Amanda the Huntress has some explaining to do on how Herobrine ended up in the Nether in the first place, and how the Ender Wars happened. Herobrine can't remember now, but I sure do, and you betcha I'll be telling you the tale!) **

**Tune in tomorrow for more updates, same bat-time (maybe), same bat-channel. Leave a REVIEW if you enjoyed, and a FAVORITE and/or FOLLOW if you want more where that came from. **

**Ciao!**


	10. Entry Ten

**Date: 10181, thirty-fifth day of summer**

**Taking shelter in a cave, almost at the Temple Mountains.**

Continued from yesterday.

* * *

Herobrine is a tricky person to try to decipher. When I first met him, he was insane. I mean, the incredibly driven, violent, impatient, and sadistic kind of insane. He fought hard and taunted ruthlessly, using more dirty tricks than I can count.

Now there's another side to him.

The _Chronicles_ described him as a kind, patient, and loving god, always with a clever gleam in his eye and some creative trick at the ready. In other words, nearly the complete opposite to the Herobrine I met. He was said to be soft-spoken unless he was driven from extremely angry to absolute fury, and historically speaking, that only happened once. All in all, he could be mistaken as a very well-meaning human being among his kind, with a very kind and charming nature.

I may have seen a little of that side of him in the Nether, on the last days we were imprisoned there.

Herobrine was very patient with me, relatively speaking, on giving me time to consider his wager. Dragon and I had many, many interesting conversations during that time, and we argued a lot. More than we ever have about anything.

For the first day after Herobrine presented the wager, I was silent about it. Frankly, I was still shocked about it. Why would Herobrine do anything like this? What could he possibly have planned? I could think of a million different ways I could be backstabbed with this, but none of them seemed plausible.

On the second day, I worked up the courage to tell Dragon. He sat silently outside of my cell, waiting until I finished, and then took a deep breath before swearing violently.

"You can't possibly be thinking about accepting!" he exclaimed. I kicked the wall in frustration, and succeeded in stubbing my toe.

"I don't know!" I shouted, cutting off whatever Dragon was about to say next. I had explained and re-explained every detail to him, and I could see no way out of this. "I just don't know." I bowed my head and sat down, cradling my foot with one hand where I curled up. That had hurt more than I expected.

"He's insane," Dragon said, as if that would help. "He can double-cross you at any time!" I mentally smacked Dragon, frustrated.

"He can throw us in lava at any time!" I shot back. "But what would that gain him? What would sitting here gain us?" _Think, you blockhead. _

"What do you think he could do with us up there?" Dragon reasoned. "This just isn't an honest deal. He could use us for anything up there."

"I _know,_" I said through clenched teeth. "But what choice do we have?"

"It doesn't matter what else!" Dragon cried, "This is making a deal with the devil!"

"_I KNOW!_" I snapped, facing Dragon through the hole in the wall. "But _what else can we do? _He will keep us here until we accept!"

"Us?" Dragon snorted. "You mean you. He made this deal with you."

He had a point there.

"I can negotiate," I retorted. "We have to get out of here somehow."

Dragon fell silent.

"Besides," I continued, "What if he's right?"

He didn't reply. We sat in strained silence for several minutes, and I took that time to try to calm down. This was hard for me- a lot of weight was resting on my decision, and this wasn't a decision that would be easy to make.

"The others could help us," Dragon suggested after a while. "They could take him down. We would just have to wait."

I sighed and made a helpless noise, looking back up at Dragon through the hole in the wall. I was near to tears. You see, I had considered this possibility too, but my intuition and my experience this far told me it simply wasn't going to happen.

"How?" I croaked. "They have no way of knowing what they're up against. They don't know where we are. And Dragon, if anything Herobrine has said is true, if anything in the _Chronicles _is true, that just won't solve the problem. Herobrine will be back, and that won't be anywhere near our biggest worry." I sank back down the wall and rested the side of my face against the bricks. "There is something else out there. Dragon, I've seen it. I want to believe it was a trick, but I can't."

Dragon sighed.

"You want to believe he was faking madness when he chased you across the Nether?" asked Dragon. "You want to believe it was an act when he killed you?" His voice was strained and quiet. I felt a tear of frustration run down my face.

Notch blast it, I can't help it. I almost _never _cry, but sometimes it just happens. When I've been pushed too far, faced too much frustration and things that are outside my control, it just happens. Angrily, I swiped away the rogue tear and buried my face in my hands, trying to smother the choking sobs before they started. Somehow, I avoided a meltdown.

"What could he gain by lying about that?" I asked, nearly whispering. I didn't trust my voice very much right then. "Dragon, I know when someone's in pain. It just can't be faked to the point that I saw in the ruins. Notch, it was awful. He was still looking bad after we were here and he came to talk to me a few times. What if he hadn't gotten control back yet?"

"You could be right," Dragon conceded, eventually. "But I just don't like it."

"I know."

The tears were coming full force this time, and this time I just let them. Taking a few deep, shuddering breaths, I tried to keep it as quiet as I could as tears ran freely down my face. The stress had to come out somewhere, I reasoned. I couldn't let it break me down completely.

Dragon peeked through the hole in the wall, and immediately saw the mess of my face.

"I just can't trust him," Dragon admitted. "I can't stand the thought of him using us, and especially not you, that's all." My heart clenched. I knew Dragon was trying to be comforting, and I had always suspected him of having feelings for me, and apparently I was right. There's no denying it after saying something like that. But the situation, well, it was just all wrong. I was too deep in survival mode right then, and as legitimate as it was, his caring was clouding his judgement, and it infuriated me.

"Don't make this any harder for me!" I burst out, standing up to look Dragon in the eye, slamming my fists on either side of the hole in the wall. My breathing was speeding up- I fought it back down to avoid going hysterical.

"I'm sorry."

Dragon's voice was too quiet. I had really hurt him this time. He had opened up more than he ever had before with me, in giving the closest thing to a confession of love to me, and I had thrown it back in his face. Closing my eyes, I sank to my knees below the hole, resting my forehead against the wall.

"Dragon..." I began, and realized I didn't know where to start. Gathering my thoughts, I tried again, all the while putting my raging feelings on a tight leash. "Dragon- I didn't mean to snap at you. Listen, I just hate this. I..." Man, it was really hard for me to say this. "I don't like taking responsibility like this. This is why I'm always out on my own- if I get hurt, it's my own fault, and I can live with that. But I just can't do _this. _This is putting too much at stake on my word. If this goes wrong, I won't be the only one hurt. It'll be everyone, and it won't be their fault. It'll be mine." I stopped as a sob wracked my chest again, and the scar twinged sharply. "I hate making mistakes that hurt other people."

There you have it, my darkest fear laid out in the open as eloquently as it's going to get.

After I said it, I discovered just how much it had been killing me to say it.

I turned so that my back rested against the wall and looked up at the glowstone crystals on the roof, blurry through the tears. Sniffing loudly, I wiped my eyes on the insides of my wrists, trying to scrub them away. More tears wanted out. I squeezed my eyes shut and locked them in.

"So what do I do?" I asked the ceiling, eyes still closed. My voice was husky and rough.

"Hey." Dragon said, reaching down through the hole in the wall to squeeze my shoulder. He slid his hand as far down as he could down my arm, and I let him take my hand and grasp it firmly. What the heck, I didn't care anymore. It made me feel better. A lot of emotion had burst out of me in just a few minutes- months of bottled-up feelings. All my pain from my long string of defeats so far.

I found myself thinking of home right then. My mansion at FireForge, my tiny forge where I worked hard to keep up with the things Lee made with Sky. The village, with all of those families that knew me so well. The priest, with his stern green eyes and more care for me than he would admit. I missed them. I found that what I wanted more than anything right then was to go home.

We didn't talk much for the next few days. I slept as much as I could, and ate when food came. I couldn't bring myself to write in my journal about what had happened so far- I was just to depressed. That was what happened when I got caught between a rock and a hard place with no way out- I just sort of closed in. I didn't give up, but I sure was stuck. I needed help getting unstuck.

Dragon, eventually, came on my side.

"Listen," he said one day. "I still don't like it, but I think you might be right." I looked up, and saw him peering through the hole in the wall. "We really are in a bind here. I've thought about this, and I've hit the same wall you have. There really is no other way out of here, so I think you should take the deal."

"You're serious?"

"Look." He broke off and looked away for a moment. "I-" He sighed. "What if he's right. I can't justify us losing our minds over this any longer than we have to. We never had a choice in the first place."

I got up off the floor and went to the hole in the wall, taking his hand in both of mine.

"Thank you."

A rattling sound emitted from the outside wall of my cell. I watched as the wall went up and the skeleton stood there questioningly, waiting for my direct answer.

"Oh, no you don't," I snapped at it. "I'm not making this deal yet. You go tell Herobrine that I'm still thinking."

The skeleton gave an awkward bow and closed the wall again. I turned to look at Dragon once more. "We have some work to do. I'll take his deal, but I'm not taking it as it stands."

Dragon nodded.

"Okay."

* * *

"Well?"

My legs were aching from standing for so long. I was in Herobrine's throne room once more, standing below the dais while Herobrine lounged in his throne. We had discussed the wager back and fourth, hashing out a set of terms we could agree on. He was surprisingly willing to take my alterations, and when he didn't, he explained why. No, I can't give you back all your arms and armor. I'm trying to trick whatever it is out there. It has to look like you escaped. Yes, you can take Dragon with you. He isn't supposed to be down here, anyway. Yes, you can take your sword at least. I won't send you off completely helpless. Oh, so you still need gear? I'll tell you where to find some in the Overworld. I already thought of that, yes.

Now he was waiting on my answer.

"You'll release Dragon with me?" I wanted to confirm the terms, one by one.

"I swear it."

"You'll stay here, and not interfere with us?"

"Yes."

"We are only to explore the End, and look for differences there?"

"That is all I ask."

"And we have thirty days?"

"Yes."

"I want to know where we would find gear in the Overworld." I wasn't letting him go easily on this one. I had to know up front. Herobrine sighed and flicked his hair out of his eyes.

"Inside the Temple of Notch, the new one, you will find a lever on the wall behind the pillar directly across from the altar, to the speaker's right. That would be your left, coming in. It will move the altar itself aside, and there is a ladder leading down to a vault below. You will find diamond arms and armor, all with standard protection and sharpness enchantments. They were put there when the Temple was rebuilt, in the case of an emergency, but the current keepers of the Temple have long since forgotten about it over the centuries."

I stopped to consider it all one last time. The last condition was a gamble- it was anybody's guess whether he was telling the truth. But the rest of the wager was sound, and I had my own reasons to believe Herobrine would stay in the Nether. But there was still one more thing.

"I have one more request for you," I began. Herobrine looked down at me, a flash of impatience in his eyes. "I want one open term: that you will do any one thing I ask of you when I return." Herobrine's brow furrowed slightly.

"Why?"

"That depends on what I find in the End." I had this feeling- the same one I had felt over and over again, at the Temple and in the ruins. Herobrine pondered my request for a few moments, then he seemed to relax.

"That is fair. Very well, then. I accept your terms. Now-" He sat forward on his throne, looking down at me with an unquestionably eager gleam in his eyes. "Will you, or will you not accept my wager?"

I swallowed hard, and kept my voice as steady as it would be, and spoke the two words that would seal my fate.

"I accept."

* * *

It's sunrise already. We should be able to make the Temple today. There's a lot I have to do, and a lot I still have to explain, but now I have a little direction again.

I'm still confused, but I sense that answers will come soon enough. I have to figure out what happened those ten thousand years ago. I need to know exactly why Herobrine was imprisoned, from someone other than himself, and I need to know, if he's telling the truth, what drove him to madness.

But first- the Temple.

Then we'll see if he kept his word.

* * *

**Happy New Year! **

**Ladies and gentlemen, as you may have seen on my announcements on my profile, I was unable to update as promised on New Year's Eve due to an unexpected change of plans. I.e., I was out of town and away from internet access. So I made the update today, New Year's Day, and I'll update again soon, as in, later this week. Sorry about that. **

**So- on to the real meat of the author's note. (Man, I've been writing a lot of these lately.) This chapter was one of the big three scenes that I knew needed MASSIVE overhaul editing from the original, so you may have noticed a number of large changes. I had to do a lot of tweaking to get the scene right. Anyway, the story is back on track, and we are finally getting out of the Nether! Hooray! Nice way to start off the year, don't you think?**

**Anyway, if you enjoyed this new chapter, remember to leave a REVIEW. If you want more where this came from (yadda yadda yadda...I know, I leave this message every time,), remember to leave a FAVORITE or a FOLLOW. **

**Huntress out. **


	11. Entry Eleven

**Date: 10181, forty-first day of summer**

**The Temple of Notch**

**Borrowing one of the studies**

Notch, have I got a lot to catch up on. We reached the Temple yesterday, but I was too busy to write anything. The others are here with us- Dragon rode off to find them and called them in. Unfortunately, they knew what happened to him before, and Dragon hasn't told them much about anything yet. I'll have a lot of explaining to do over dinner tonight.

Now where was I?

* * *

Well, Herobrine kept his word as far as letting Dragon and I out of the Nether. He also returned my sword, _Firefall, _and he didn't follow us.

Surprise, surprise.

It wasn't as easy as it looked, getting out. He showed us the way out of his fortress, but we were on our own from there. He simply told us to follow the trail laid out for us, and we would find the portal. We would have to light it ourselves, and he would close it after us. It was a long walk, but we made it.

It was nightfall in the Overworld when we finally came home. The portal noise increased to deafening levels, and then suddenly fell silent. We were thrown out into the open by the whorls of magic, and we each took two steps forward, overbalanced, and tumbled onto the grass. A sudden breeze ruffled my hair, blowing it down into my face.

I couldn't help but giggle.

Surreal as it seemed to my tired mind, we were home. We were in the Overworld, with its pristine air and life abounding. The dust and heat and noise of the Nether was behind us at last, and my brain just couldn't take it all in at once. We were free.

But then the wager fought its way into my thoughts, souring my joy. I couldn't stay here. I had a bargain to keep.

Most importantly, I would have to go back there.

Shaking my head, I struggled to push myself back up onto my feet. Dragon offered me a hand- I accepted his help and we leaned on each other, catching our breath. I looked back at the portal. For a few heartbeats, it remained as it was, looming over me with the promise of horrors on the other side. Then a deep rumble went through the ground under my feet, and slowly the portal's whorls stopped and vanished. An empty frame of obsidian stood in its place. Powerless. Just another structure.

Dragon looked up.

"It's getting late." he remarked, and I glanced up, too. The sun was just vanishing under the horizon.

Crap.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked, looking around. "There might be caves nearby." Dragon pulled back his arm and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Ahh, Huntress." He sighed, and I immediately knew he was mocking me. "Aren't you going to let me have a little fun?" _Dragon, you numbskull, _I thought.

"This isn't exactly the time..." I began, but then I reconsidered. Dragon had been stuck in a cell all alone for months. He needed to stretch his legs and get back into his old routine way of letting off steam. I looked back at him, and then I saw it in his eyes. He had more than just a little steam to let off. He was holding in some serious anger.

And if he just needed a few zombies to let it out on, who was I to stop him? He needed space tonight.

"All right," I said, and then immediately looked around for trees. "But try to remember that we only have one sword between us."

"Don't insult me, woman." Dragon shot back. "I have my fists and know how to use 'em." I glared at him.

Oh, Dragon.

"Your fists won't stop an arrow. Or an explosion. If we're going to fight instead of sheltering tonight, we'd better move. And you still need a weapon."

"Mother hen."

I stopped and burst out laughing. Yeesh, I was still euphoric from getting out of the Nether.

"So says the one who _didn't _almost get eaten on his first night." I replied. Then I looked at Dragon and saw what he was about to say written out plainly on his face with his sideways smile. "Shut up," I snapped, before he could say anything. "Let's go."

I turned and began to stride off after the setting sun, headed for higher ground. I needed to figure out where we were so we could find the Temple of Notch. Dragon jogged up along side me. It wasn't full dark yet, but I could already see a few zombies struggling out of the dirt.

"Just like old times?" he asked, eyes forward. I took out _Firefall _from my inventory and glanced sideways at him. Slowly, a grin spread across my face, too. I have to admit, his optimism can be contagious.

"Sure."

We charged off into the night.

* * *

We were weak, tired, and hungry from our imprisonment in the Nether, but that didn't stop us at all. After all the fighting I'd been through against Herobrine and the mobs in the Nether, fighting the run-of-the-mill monsters of the night in the Overworld was a breeze. Dragon did as he threatened, and tried to take down as many monsters as he could with his hands, until he nearly got blown up. Then he sheepishly took my advice and gathered wood for crafting while I watched his back.

When we were both bone-weary and ready to stop, I scouted out a cave to hole up in, and we blocked it off and took shelter for the night. I figured out our location from the stars and the mountains in the south, and in the morning, we set off to the southeast, where we would be able to find a pass across the mountains and then travel due west along the range to reach the Temple. Dragon made himself a wooden sword while we rested, and each night, to save our strength, we stopped when the sun went down.

It took us six days to reach the Temple, trekking on foot through the wilderness. For that time, we simply ate, ran, and fought. And for the first time in my life, I didn't take a single fight seriously. I could dodge arrows. I could run faster than a zombie could. I could outdistance a creeper.

I have to admit, it was kind of fun. Dragon had a point- this was just like old times. Back when we were young and innocent and had little else to worry about.

But even with that in mind, the thought of the wager loomed over everything like a dark cloud. I had a responsibility, and Herobrine wasn't going to let me off on this one. He would only stay in the Nether for those thirty days, after all.

One night, we were taking shelter under an overhang with the tree growth thick enough on all sides to not need much extra structure. Dragon had a fire going, and he was cooking a few steaks. He sat against the wall as he waited, _Firefall _balanced point-down on the ground and resting against his shoulder. I was lying on my back across from him, my legs drawn up and one crossed over the other. Every so often, Dragon or I would shift to check on the steaks.

"We're almost there, you know." said Dragon. I raised myself on one elbow to turn the steaks over.

"I know," I replied. "I've been through here before. I can show you the lake the Endermen dropped me in, if you'd like." We were in the woods a few hours away from the Temple, near where I had run my heart-stopping marathon to the Temple village.

"What do you think he's planning?" Dragon asked. "What does he expect us to find in the End?" I gingerly removed the hot steaks from the fireside, handing one to Dragon. He took his with a mumble of thanks.

"I'm not sure," I said. "If we take him for his word, he wants to know what took him over. He thinks it's in the End." Dragon shook his head.

"I just don't get it. Why us?"

I thought about this for a moment. Why did Herobrine target us in the way he did instead of going after the Villager race? I thought of what he had told me in the Nether, that he was thinking first of self-preservation, and I wondered if he had been able to see our powers from the beginning. In hindsight, this would have been easier than I was thinking it was- we had those massive cities and estates completely devoid of Villager life. It would have been obvious that we were something above and beyond.

"We were there." I decided. "He needed tools and we fit the bill." Dragon grunted.

"I still hate this. I don't like the idea of being used."

"It got us out of the Nether, didn't it?"

Dragon didn't press the point. We ate in silence and went to sleep.

* * *

Ah- before I continue, I'd better clear up a few points. Herobrine showed me a lot before letting me out of the Nether, and I had better write that down.

I can smell the cooking upstairs, so I had better write fast before the dinner call comes.

The most important things that he showed me were first, all the things that I should see if the End were in any normal state. After returning to me my sword, he guided me to a room filled with all sorts of End artifacts. There were bookshelves and scrolls filled with information, but the one thing that dominated the room was a huge glass case, at least four blocks tall. Inside of it was suspended an Enderman.

Herobrine glanced between me and the case, and sighed meaningfully. Brushing his hair out of his eyes, he approached the case and laid a reverent hand against the glass. I studied the Enderman inside more closely. Its eyes were closed, but I could see that it breathed. It was suspended in some sort of fluid or magic or, well, something that wasn't water. Something that kept it alive.

"This isn't the first time I tried to seek answers, Huntress." Herobrine began. "There are not many things I can remember after I was taken, but I remember finding this Enderman. He was the one that tried to warn me when forces came to capture me, and in one of my brief periods of lucidity, I found him halfway immersed in water, dying and unable to teleport back to the End to heal. I was able to bring him here, but he hasn't awoken since." Herobrine's voice went very quiet. "He tried to save my life."

I looked away. Frankly, I didn't know what to think. Then Herobrine looked up again and turned to me.

"I made this wager for more than just myself, Huntress," he said, his gaze hard. "You must try to understand. I have lost enough already- I cannot allow whatever this is to return and turn me into a monster again." He sighed heavily. "Nothing would survive that. Not even me."

"But you're a god." I probably shouldn't have blurted out the obvious, but I did. Herobrine looked at me sharply, surprise in his eyes.

"You didn't think my brother would allow this to happen again, did you?" he asked, his voice more shocked than cynical. "No, he would put an end to me quickly enough if it did."

I swallowed hard. "Oh."

Herobrine smiled ruefully at me. "No worries. Now- this here is an energy crystal commonly used in the End." He picked up a large magenta cube held suspended in a frame of wires. "They produce massive amounts of power, but it is very volatile..." He explained to me what sort of structures and whatnot I should find in the End, and he showed me a rune printed carefully on a page of paper. "I found this marking wherever I found malice in the old days. It's burned into my memory, and in some places, it's all I could remember after I was taken. I believe it is the sign of whatever it was that took me and twisted me into its puppet. Watch for it."

Now for one other thing. There's an enchantment on Herobrine's sword that allows it to do terrible things, include bind him to the souls of those he slays, or in my case, leave scars that stick with me even after I respawn.

But there's one other thing.

When we were in the hallway leading to Dragon's cell, he stopped me and drew his sword. I stepped back quickly- what was this about?

"Relax," he chuckled, flipping the blade over and offering me the hilt. "There's something that you should know, and the only way I can tell you is to demonstrate." Reluctantly, I wrapped my fingers around the hilt of the heavy blade and lifted it, using both hands. It was a lot bigger than _Firefall. _"Now look at your reflection in the blade." I did so.

I gasped and dropped the sword.

My reflection in the sword wasn't mine. Well, it _was _me for the most part, with my plain features of a straight nose, high cheekbones, and a full lower lip.

But my eyes were glowing dead white.

The sword rang as it clattered to the floor, and as I watch, my reflection went back to normal. The light faded out of my eyes, and they turned back to their normal blue irisis. I glared at Herobrine for this nasty surprise.

"What was that?" I hissed, and Herobrine apologized after he retrieved his sword.

"I didn't know my sword would have this effect," he admitted. "I have never encountered anyone with your special brand of immortality. As you are aware, this is no ordinary sword. It is a curse sword. It binds my victims to me. Apparently, it has a similar effect on you as whatever was done to me had on me- it enacts the change in the eyes. My eyes were brown before this, like my brother."

I briefly tried to imagine that and failed.

"So what does this mean for me now?" I was still rattled by this little revelation.

"It means that whenever you are exposed to End energy," Herobrine explained, "Your eyes will change. My sword contains enough energy to enact this change to show you. Endermen produce more energy, and they will do the same if they get too close. But don't look at me like that- this can benefit you. Your friends may find this useful."

"Useful?" I choked.

"No Enderman can sneak up on you, now."

Small comfort.

* * *

Now- back to what I've been up to since. The route we took to the Temple took us straight past the ruins of the Village, and that was a moment that I was dreading.

When we broke through the woods at last, Dragon stopped dead at the top of the hill, paused for a moment, and swore explosively. I jogged to catch up with him and stopped a few paces behind.

Before us lay the ruins of the village, as I had expected. They were starting to grow over with new grass and a little moss here and there, but most of the destruction was still clear. I took a deep breath and told myself not to think about it too hard. The past was in the past.

"I...I didn't know it was this bad." Dragon breathed.

"You don't know until you see it," I mumbled. Dragon looked back at me, a dark glimmer in his eyes. I think it was hatred.

"How- After all of this, how can you trust anything he says?"

I sighed and shook my head.

"Dragon, you already know the answer to that. We can't. But we don't have much to work with here. I'm running off my gut, and my gut says, what if it's the truth? What if it wasn't really him that did this?"

"What if it was?" he shot back. "What if he really is a monster like this?"

"I don't know!" I snapped. "I never did know! But try to remember that _I was there. _I _fought_ him here, and I died here. Horribly." The memory was threatening to replay itself. I shoved it back down. "But I also saw him in the ruins, being tortured. Think. Wouldn't any one of us cave if we had to go through something like that?"

"No." Dragon answered flatly. I clenched my teeth.

"After a few months?" I snarled. "Or a few years? I watched all of these people die. I died. But I'm more interested in the truth. If we go to the End and we're wrong, then that's one possibility we can rule out." And we can focus on what's more important: Saving our world.

Dragon heaved a sigh. "All right."

We went on to the Temple in silence.

* * *

We reached the Temple of Notch safely. Dragon, although still wary of the wager, seemed to still trust me, and as we entered the Temple sanctuary and approached the altar, he handed _Firefall _back to me.

"Let's find out whether or not he told you the truth," Dragon said, examining the heavy diamond altar blocks at the rear of the room. Herobrine had said that the armor we needed was hidden below the altar. I circled the piece, looking for any signs of any movable parts. Dragon found it first.

"Here-" he said from behind the altar as a click emanated from where he knelt. I jumped back in surprise when the whole left side of the altar dropped down to reveal a ladder descending downwards. I swallowed as Dragon and I exchanged glances, then nodded and started down the ladder, putting away my sword.

The ladder was short, and it opened up to a small chamber with several racks of armor, all with swords and bows. All were made of diamond with powerful enchantments.

I rested a hand on the breastplate of one of the suits, watching as the magic of the enchantments lazily glimmered and moved across its surface in a pale hued light.

Dragon landed on the ground next to me, and I watched his eyes widen at the objects stored in the chamber. I smiled at him.

"Shall we try it on?" I asked.

After that, Dragon was slightly more inclined to believe me about Herobrine.

* * *

Oh, blast. It's time to go to dinner now. Well, if I can face down Herobrine as many times as I did, I can face my closest friends about this. But I don't know how they'll take it. They would have seen the village ruins on their way here.

I just hope we find the truth. That's all I want.

Well, that, and to save our world before time runs out.

* * *

**Amanda the Huntress, here. **

**Well, it seems some important developments are underway. Hooray! It's confirmed: Dragon and Huntress have left the Nether. Repeat: Dragon and Huntress have left the Nether. **

**And again, I moan of the... well, I had a lot to fix and this was a necessary rewrite, blah blah blah. Nothing you want to read in an author's note, right?**

**Since I have been so often using this little box of bold print for news and excuses, I'd better try to stick to the pattern. I kept my promise and updated! Yay! That being said, school is coming back up, and with it, delays. I'm sorry, guys. Just brace yourselves. **

**Lots of big things happening in the next entry! We finally meet the other seven Steves in the flesh- and mind you, it won't all be pretty. Tensions will rise, trust betrayed, and a whole lot of stuff is about to go down. **

**My veterans from the original, sit down and shut up. Have a cookie so you don't give spoilers. You know what I'm about to do to Huntress. Hush. **

**That's all for now. With the REVIEWS, FAVORITES, and FOLLOWS, well... you know the drill. **

**Huntress out.**


	12. Entry Twelve

**Date: 10181, forty-first day of summer**

**The Temple of Notch**

**After dinner, recording from where I left off earlier today  
**

We're starting to make plans for a trip to the End, but a lot happened in a few hours. Let's hope I don't fall asleep on my page. I've been doing too much writing today. If I don't finish, I'll keep going tomorrow morning.

Here goes.

* * *

When we reached the Temple of Notch and got the armor out of the secret compartment under the altar, Dragon decided to go and track down the others and bring them here. His reasoning was that we needed to be together to take any big actions like going to a completely unexplored dimension. So, while I made myself comfortable and set up my room in the barracks, he took a horse and rode off.

I had time to kill, in the mean time.

I entered the sanctuary cautiously, feeling that the Temple was altogether too quiet without its yeomen and priests. I wore no armor at the time, and I held in my arms a rectangular cloth-wrapped parcel with a small seal holding it shut.

This was something Herobrine had given me back in the Nether. I was just leaving when he stopped me and asked for a favor.

"Wait, Huntress," Herobrine called as I was walking down the dark brick-lined hallway. I stopped and turned, and Herobrine held up a vaguely book-shaped package in one hand, wrapped in rust-colored fabric. "There is one more thing I want you to do for me."

"Yes?" I asked. He held up the package for me to take. "What's this?"

"The holy books. The _Book of Notch, _and my book. The _Book of Herobrine. _First, I wish to thank you for bringing it to me. It has restored to me memories I thought I would lose forever. But there is one more use for it yet. I have written a message in the back of it, one intended for my brother. Could you deliver it for me?"

"How would I do that?"

"Just take it to the Temple, to the beacon. Read it before the holy light of Notch, and he will hear. It is what the beacon was designed for, in part."

I looked down at the parcel in my hands, thinking it over. It was a favor to Herobrine, but it couldn't do any harm.

"Okay."

Herobrine looked at me with an expression of utter relief. "Thank you, Huntress. I cannot express how much this means to me."

Now I stood in the Temple, fulfilling that favor. I walked down the aisle of the sanctuary and went to the altar, which I had polished earlier until it shone. A beam of sunlight struck it at an angle from the skylight above the pyramid, scattering light around the room in a blaze of color like a prism. Kneeling before the diamond altar, I broke the wax seal and pulled the soft, dusty fabric off of the book. The ancient black leather of the cover had been oiled until it was soft and pliant again, and the gold inlay spelling out the title, _The Book of Herobrine, _had been newly replaced.

Leaving the book on the altar, I went to the pyramid and flipped the switch, activating the mechanism that would turn on the beacon. Blinding light flooded the sanctuary, overpowering the sunlight. Slowly, the light condensed into a single beam, which shot up into the sky higher than the eye could follow. A soft blue glow was left in its wake, illuminating the entire room. I went back to the altar and opened the _Book of Herobrine _to the end pages in the back, where Herobrine said he had written the message to his brother.

Inside, there was a large block of text written neatly in flowing, flourished script in black ink. Taking a deep breath, I began to read aloud.

"_Year ten thousand, one hundred and eighty-one since my Descent, ninety-eight days after the opening of the Nether. From the pen of Herobrine, delivered by a Son of Steve messenger. _

_"To my brother Notch-_

_"Greetings and blessings. It has been a long time since we have last spoken, Notch. I mourn every day that passes that we must be divided, but the danger is too great. If only we could see one another face-to-face again! But the force that nearly destroyed me before is active once more, and I must not leave the Nether until I have gained my strength back against the foul thing. _

_"I know that there is no excuse that can be made for my actions before my imprisonment, against the Overworld and against you. I believed I was right at the time- but I was also driven mad. I blamed you, and blamed you for centuries before I realized the truth. You must believe me- I am truly sorry. It was no fault of yours that I was not strong enough to fight the madness, and I could not stop the destruction before it was too late. I pray, in the time that I have been absent from the Overworld, that the scars I left have healed and the world has begun to grow once more. Yet I have come to realize now, why my strength failed me when I needed it against the pain and the madness. I allowed my anger to drive me- my hatred- and it let the forces of evil have even greater control of me. A part of me asks for mercy, Notch, but another asks that I be held fully responsible as I should be. What was done should not have happened. I allowed myself to despair where hope could have saved me. _

_"I remember the beginning of the Ender Wars clearly, and how we fought in that time. I remember how you refused to help me to punish the human race for their wickedness, and how you wanted my anger to cool. I never believed my actions unrighteous, in fact, I still don't, but your opinion was the wiser. Had I not allowed myself to be pushed to the brink, I could have realized sooner that I was being manipulated. We both were. _

_"Thanks to this messenger that I now send to you, I have been able to regain much of what I lost. I defeated the enthrallment over myself, but I fear that that is just the beginning of what must happen. The forces of evil are in motion once more, and none of my tricks are going to stop them now. I am sending this messenger, Huntress, to find answers about our enemy, and I ask that you protect her. Protect her soul from the force that enslaved mine, and if need be, if I am wrong, protect her from me. History cannot be allowed to repeat itself. _

_"I believe myself on the brink of recovery, perhaps enough to return from the Nether in due time, but I will be forever scarred, body and mind, by what was done to me. I cannot wage this war again alone. I beg of you, Notch, to return to the Overworld and set things right. Your creation needs you, now more than ever. I fear ten thousand years has been ample time for the enemy to prepare once more. _

_"Above all, brother, I need your healing not only on our creation, but on me. I have committed a great evil against our creation, and already nearly relapsed into enslavement and madness once before I caught myself. If I am wrong, it could easily happen again. I am sorry, brother. I beg you forgiveness for what I have done, and if it must be, I will accept whatever punishment you deem justified. But first, the enemy must be defeated. I need you, brother. Our creation needs you. By our combined power, let us set things right. _

_Things have gone too far, and the fault lies with my own choices. _

_With all of my heart, I am sorry._

_-Herobrine."_

I set the book down on the altar and shut my eyes, grinding the heels of my hands into my closed eyelids. They burned with that prickling sensation you get when you want to cry, but can't. Herobrine had written that letter just days ago, right before he released us from the Nether.

Something in my chest clenched, and I couldn't breathe. Snapping the book shut, I looked up at the ceiling, struggling to keep my feelings in check. My hands clenched into fists, and I eventually buried my face in my arms, taking one shuddering breath after another.

How did this letter have this sort of effect on me? It was written by my enemy. It wasn't written to me. The manner it was written in was so strictly formal and restrained, and yet- I couldn't deny the soul-shaking sorrow it awakened. Running my hands through my hair, I looked up at the beacon light again, gazing straight into the beam.

"I just want to understand," I whispered to the light. "Notch, if you can hear me, let me see the truth. Gods above, I just want to know what's really going on. If he really is good, help him."

At some point, I need to learn the full, undiluted story of what really happened ten thousand years ago. Something bigger than just Herobrine and Notch happened, and I have to know what. An entire civilization fell within the span of a year. If Herobrine alone were capable of that, wouldn't Notch have stopped him sooner at least? I've seen the destruction he's capable of, but to do it on the scale that he allegedly did according to the _Chronicles, _it would have taken him so much longer than just a year. Mankind was spread out across thousands and thousands of miles.

So what else is out there?

I suppose that's what Herobrine's enlisted us to find out, eh? He thinks it's in the End, so to the End we go. But even if we find it, I still have to know the story.

* * *

"We saw the beacon go up," Dragon announced as he walked into the Temple. I had been napping on a pew as he walked in- startled, I nearly rolled right off the padded oak and barely managed to catch myself. Shaking my head to clear it, I got to my feet and looked up. Behind Dragon stood all of my companions, all the sons of Steve in the world.

Notch, I missed them so much. And some of them, at least, had missed me as well.

"Huntress!" Dawn caught me unprepared and slammed into me in a violent hug. I stumbled backwards several paces, hugging back just as fiercely once I regained my balance. I'm pretty sure we came close to cracking each other's ribs, but we didn't let go for a long time.

Now that I think of it, I haven't considered what everyone else has been feeling since this started. I've been off literally getting killed, but waiting... waiting is worse. Much worse. They've been in hiding for months, wondering if the rest of us are alive.

Yikes. Sitting in my bunker for three days was bad enough.

"Good to see you too, Dawn," I said softly, half choked by the tears I struggled to hold back and my friend's crushing embrace. Rose came over and joined the hug, being a little gentler than the energetic Dawn and refraining from crushing the life out of me.

Sky and Lee gave hugs in the more masculine way, but Wolf stayed off to the side, greeting me with a nod and nothing more. He seemed more serious than usual, more taciturn. I noticed his hand staying close to his sword hilt at his side.

I looked over each of my friends then, as we exchanged words of greeting, and reflected on how each of us had changed. Dragon and I were obviously looking the most beaten-up from our travels and our Nether ordeal. We had all lost a little weight, and the signs of the lack of sunlight showed on us all, with paler skin and darker hair all around. But there were other changes as well.

Dawn, for all her explosive energy, was less enthusiastic than before. There was a hint of worry behind her eyes, and when she let go of me at last from the hug, she was trembling. Wolf, who was always a serious person, was now paranoid and sullen. He was much sharper with me, less patient with my answers to his questions. Dragon was missing the classic twinkle in his eye, and Lee seemed less confident than usual. Sky, the youngest of us, was more openly afraid. I could see something instinctual in everyone's eyes, some childlike need that we'd never had before. We were in deep in something we didn't know how to work out, and I've gotta tell you, that stinks.

The past months have been hard on us.

For a moment, we all just stood in silence after the usual "how are you's" and "good to see you again's", until Sky leaned against the back of a pew and broke the tension.

"So," he began, "Where has everyone been?"

* * *

Right before dinner, as I was in fact writing in this journal, I had a very nasty scare.

I had escaped from Sky's question, promising to explain things over dinner, and was musing over a few things I had written down in my journal. The wager, Herobrine's behavior, and most importantly, the fallen god's warning.

The white eyes.

I still wasn't used to it. It was disturbing enough to know I was working for the same person who had killed me twice, but there at least I had some sort of instinct guiding me. Disturbing, yes, but it felt right.

The eyes, however, still felt wrong.

Putting down my ink and quill for a moment to rest my hand, I pulled an Ender pearl from the stash found under the altar out of my inventory and examined it in my hand. It gave off tiny purple sparks, and in its glassy surface I could see my white-eyed reflection.

It's funny, the things I can swallow. I know any one of my friends would have balked at the idea of making a deal with Herobrine. Now that I think of it, I was almost defending Herobrine when Dragon saw the ruins of the Temple village. I've seen so much since that night, or really, since the day I set off from my home. The phantom-Herobrine in the library, and then seeing him again in the flesh in the old ruins of Luminara. I've seen Herobrine triumphant and gloating over me with his sword in one hand and a fireball in the other, murderous glee in his eyes, and I've seen him on his knees among wood splinters and broken glass in a fallen city, tortured by a force I could not see.

I want to know the truth. Who is Herobrine really? What is the real evil behind all this?

And most of all, what does this all have to do with me?

I can't deny all the driving feelings I have felt since this started. The drive to leave. The drive to fight, even when the odds were impossible. The drive to follow the advice of my enemy. The drive that favors Herobrine... to what end, I don't know.

Now I was sitting in the Temple, bound by a wager with Herobrine, with white eyes. I still couldn't believe the white eyes. Everything else I could swallow, but this... this felt wrong on a deeper level. I recalled a village priest associating white eyes with a being who has lost its soul and shuddered.

Anyway, I was mulling over all this when Dragon knocked and came in. I made the mistake of turning while I still held the pearl in my hand.

With a shout, Dragon drew his sword and attacked.

I gasped and leaped out of my chair, knocking it over behind me as I dove to the floor to avoid getting beheaded by Dragon. The Ender pearl rolled out of my hand as I went down, and I didn't chase it. When Dragon swung again, I got to my feet and jumped backwards, vaulting up onto the table.

"HOLD, Dragon!" My voice hit a very high pitch that it had seldom reached before. Dragon froze, the tip of his sword trembling as it dawned on him who I really was. With the pearl on the other side of the room, I half-hoped my eyes had returned to normal.

Voice trembling, I said, "Dragon, it's just me. I already told you about this, remember? My eyes change." I tried to control the shaking in my voice, but it was with little success. My hands were shaking, too. Blinking, Dragon lowered his sword and hurriedly sheathed it, not meeting my eye. I had in fact told him about the effect of end energy on me, while we were on our way here from the portal, but he hadn't actually seen me yet with white eyes.

"By Notch, Huntress, I'm sorry..." Dragon began, clearly deeply shaken from mistaking me for Herobrine. I stopped him.

"Listen, it's fine-"

"No," he interrupted, "it isn't. I could have killed you."

I sat down on the table's edge and slid off, standing on the floor again. "I would have drawn steel if I had seen Herobrine here. Any of us would."

He wasn't convinced. "There's a big difference between you and him, Huntress. I should have been able to think first. Blast it! I really could have hurt you."

"Dragon." My harsh tone stopped him dead. "Forget about it. It was a mistake, and you won't make it again. I trust you."

Swallowing, he shook his head and looked at the ceiling. Was it just me, or did he look to be almost on the verge of tears? I squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

"We'll be all right," I said, looking at his face and wishing he would meet my gaze. Looking back at me, Dragon let out a slow breath and then suddenly caught me in a hug. I was too surprised to pull away.

"How do you do it, Huntress?" he asked softly, near my ear. "How do you forgive so easily?" He heaved a shaky breath, struggling with what to say next. "You... don't understand how I feel about you. I don't know what I would do if I hurt you." From how closely he was holding me, I could tell he meant that as more than a friend.

Forgiving. Hah. Funny he should remark on that. People are easy to forgive. But your own actions- those are something you'll regret much longer.

"You'd know better," I murmured. "You'd learn from what you did." Dragon put a hand on top of my head playfully.

"The way you put it, it almost sounds like logic," he said, trying to sound humorous, but his voice was hoarse.

I pulled away far enough to look Dragon in the face. He had a strange light behind those determined blue eyes that I had only seen a few times before, including in the Nether. I never fully understood what it meant. Seeing it made something in my chest flutter.

"Now, when did this... when did you start thinking like this, about me?" I hoped he would catch my meaning- when did I suddenly become so special.

"It's always been this way," Dragon replied, releasing me and turning towards the door. "I just haven't been able to say it until now." He half-turned to look at me. "I guess it took going to the Nether to put things into perspective."

I swallowed hard. Oh, bloody, sulfurous, burning Nether. I didn't know what to say to that. I've seen people in love before, among the villagers, but this? This was different. This felt... I don't know. Anyone else would call it wonderful. Dragon's steadfast loyalty and gentle friendship had kept me going through a lot of trouble in the past, but this is something entirely new to me, even as I write this. Mostly, I recoiled from the idea, finding such a feeling dangerous, something that slid under all the layers of my happy past with Dragon and ripping it off like scales on a fish. It would change things. But part of me, some small part of me, warmed at the idea.

I'll... think about this later.

"Well," Dragon said as he walked out of the room, "It's time for dinner. I hope I haven't put you off your appetite." He sounded genuinely regretful, and my heart went out to him for it. What if our positions had been switched? The same thing could have happened, and I would have been holding the sword.

As for my appetite? Surprisingly, I was still very, very hungry.

* * *

Okay, I give up. I'm falling asleep at my desk, and I would hate to sleep face-down in my journal.

What went on at dinner and the episode afterwards will have to wait.

Good night.

* * *

**Amanda the Huntress here.  
**

**Don't start throwing things at me, please! I know, it's been a long time since I've updated this story, and I've updated at an awkward time. (With a doubly awkward chapter, in my opinion, but also vital to the plot, so it stayed.) Trust me, I have my reasons. Exams, mostly. **

**Now, business! Huntress and her friends are finally reunited, but Herobrine's wager is still hanging over their heads. And what _is _the truth about Herobrine? Find out soon, in the next update! (To my readers of Chronicle and the original A Minecraft Tale, sit down and keep your mouths shut. Spoilers will be dealt with under my personal zero-tolerance policy.) **

**Now, I tried this on another of my stories, so I'll try it here. How many of you read my little author's notes down here? If you do, then as you review, remember to type out yourself raising your right hand, like this: *raises right hand*. And do leave a meaningful review! What am I to do without your constructive criticism? And as usual, if you want to see more where this came from, remember to Favorite or Follow, since my updates tend to be erratic. **

**See you next update! **


	13. Entry Thirteen

**Date: 10181, forty-second day of summer**

**The Temple of Notch**

**Continued from where I left off last night**

It's still fairly early in the morning. I'm writing this as much by torchlight as sunlight, with the sun only just beginning to come over the horizon now. I didn't sleep very well last night- perhaps my mind was too occupied.

On that note, I need to finish catching up where I left off.

* * *

After the embarrassingly awkward conversation in the study, Dragon and I made our way downstairs to where Sky and Lee had discovered a kitchen still well-stocked with food. I was hungry, but nothing seemed to feel right last night. The halls were too empty. Our footsteps echoed too much. Where normally there would be a bell loudly tolling to signal mealtime- something I could hear even beneath the mountain in the old buried Temple- now there was only silence. It bugged me, reminding me too much of what had happened to everyone in the village, and of Dragon, silent at my side, both of us unsure of what to say.

Rose had already set the table for us when we walked in. Without a word, Dragon and I took our seats in the empty chairs as the dishes were passed around. Roasted potatoes, pork chops, cooked carrots, hard-crusted bread. I filled my plate and ate mechanically, lost in thought.

After catching me twirl a chunk of potato in circles for more than a minute, Dawn elbowed me gently.

"You okay?" she asked, her expression worried. I blinked and cocked my head at her, my expression questioning. My mouth still full, I gestured with my free hand that I hadn't quite caught what she said.

"You look terrible," she elaborated.

I grinned mirthlessly and swallowed. "I haven't slept properly in days," I explained, reaching for my cup to wash down my potato.

She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She would start asking questions in a minute, however. I sipped my water, gathering my thoughts. It struck me then that this was the first time that any of us had sat down for a meal together in more than six months. Gatherings between us had become rare- typically, they were bright, cheerful affairs full of jokes and stories. Right now there was an uncomfortable quiet, broken only by a few spurts of small talk. I sensed the tension between us.

"So," Sky began, "You promised to tell your story at dinner, and, well, it's dinner," he said, gesturing with his fork. I set down my cup, noticing Wolf sit up a little straighter and give me a hard look.

"I did, didn't I?" I said, still not sure where to start.

"Where were you?" Wolf asked, the question polite but his tone accusing. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I was in a study, reading." I answered coolly, caught off guard by his manner. Wolf scowled at me.

"I mean when Herobrine first came. Where were you?" he asked, rephrasing his question.

"When Herobrine first came, I was in my bunker. The northern one." I replied.

"Really? All this time? Dragon said you weren't hiding." he said, and I suddenly realized where he might be going with this.

"That's right, I wasn't hiding all this time. It's where I ended up after I fought Herobrine."

Everyone around the table blanched, except for Dragon. He already knew, but he still clenched his jaw. The story hadn't been pretty.

"You mean-" Dawn began and trailed off, and I nodded.

"He got me. I had time to put down a command block, but he still..." I closed my eyes and shook my head. "It wasn't good. It started just after Dragon disappeared, and I heard that his city was in ruins. After that, I rode off to look for the old library, the one buried with the old Temple. I didn't find the library- but I did find Herobrine, and an old sanctuary devoted to him."

Lee gave me a funny look. "That changes things. My priest said he was a demon. But if he has a temple..."

I nodded. "It surprised me too. But I found the _Chronicles _there, and they say that Herobrine is the brother of Notch. So does Herobrine, by the way. There's a lot we didn't know."

Wolf glared at me, almost interrupting me. "You talked to him?" he snapped, and I met his gaze and held it.

"Yes," I answered, "I did. Let me finish explaining. As you probably heard from Dragon, we were in the Nether and we had more than enough time to talk with him."

Wolf sat back in his chair, a dissatisfied expression on his face, but he kept quiet.

"After I found the sanctuary and the books, Herobrine found me. He, uh..." I took another sip of water, "He tried to threaten me with a lot of things, like burning down my home and killing the villagers. But what really made me snap was what he said about Dragon." I meant to leave that detail out, but it just slipped out. Dragon leaned forward when I fell silent.

"What did he say?" he asked, and I looked up.

I took a deep breath. "He threatened to torture you forever in the Nether. He talked about how fun it would be to kill someone with infinite lives, over and over."

Dragon paled, but his voice was steady. "Then you fought him. First the Endermen in the sanctuary, then Herobrine in the village. He killed you." he filled in for me, and I said a silent thanks.

"I stayed in my bunker for three days after that, going over what I found," I continued. "I skimmed over the _Chronicles_ and fixed my armor and so on. After that, I was too stir-crazy to stay. I had to find a way to stop Herobrine. He already had Dragon- Notch only knew what he would do with him."

Dawn let out a slow breath. "I wish I'd come out sooner, Huntress. I should have been there to help." I looked over at her.

"Did Dragon tell you this already?" I asked, and she waggled her hand side to side in a so-so gesture.

"He told us his side, but he said that you should tell your side yourself." she answered. I nodded.

"After I left the bunker, I went back to the Temple." I began, but Sky interrupted me with a whistle.

"Right into the lion's jaws, there." he said, but I glared at him before he could comment further.

"I had to find what I was looking for. I needed to know where Herobrine really came from- what happened to him, what he was capable of. When I went to the buried Temple again, I found the library this time. Herobrine appeared, but something was different. First of all, he wasn't physically there."

This drew a few exclamations from the others. I held up a hand for silence, wanting to get through this as quickly as possible.

"He was using some sort of projection to talk to me. He was completely different- he didn't attack, he didn't taunt... it was like a completely different personality. He showed me where to find the holy books, the original copies of the _Book of Notch_ and the _Book of Herobrine_. I can't read them, but I was hoping to find something to translate them over with. They're in an old script that hasn't been used for a long time.

"After that, I decided to look for one of the ancient ruins of the former Steve race, one marked out in the _Chronicles_. I found it, but there wasn't much left of it. And I found Herobrine again."

Speaking swiftly, I recounted how I had found Herobrine curled up in agony one moment and strangling me with magic the next, retelling the details of what he had told me before dropping me down a Nether portal. From there, Dragon helped fill in the details of our time in the Nether after Herobrine had caught and killed me again.

But when I reached the part about the wager, Wolf slammed his fist down.

"What kind of an empty-headed idea is that?" he cried, and I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead with one hand in exasperation.

"We didn't have much of a choice," I said. "It was either that or be held in the Nether until we agreed." Wolf shook his head.

"And what's your plan now? You're out, so now what? How do you know he'll keep his side of the bargain? He could be outside right now, destroying everything-"

"He isn't. He's in the Nether." I said this with certainty, which made Wolf jump to his feet in outrage.

"How can you know?" he snapped. Dragon was fed up at this point.

"SIT DOWN." he roared at Wolf, standing to face him. "You have no idea what she's been through. Let her finish." Cowed, Wolf sank down in his seat. Dragon slowly followed, picking up his drink to sip from it while keeping an eye on Wolf.

I nodded my thanks. "I know he'll keep his side because of what he himself wrote. There's something bigger at work here that we don't fully understand. Everything he's done so far doesn't make consistent sense. When he attacked me, he was cold and deliriously happy burning everything in sight. When we spoke in the library, it was a completely different person. And then in Luminara- what about that? I know what I saw. I just don't know what to make of it."

"It could be a trick-" Wolf began, but I cut him off.

"A trick so elaborate that he pours out his soul in a fake apology to Notch?" I reply, unable to keep the bitter edge out of my voice. When everyone stares at me, I silently pull _The Book of Herobrine _out of my inventory and put it down on the table, open to the end page with Herobrine's letter. But while everyone else leaned forward to read it, Wolf made a futile gesture at it.

"Anyone can write a speech," he said. "It's a trick, Huntress. You're being duped, and you're going to get the rest of us killed."

"Wolf," Rose began, looking up from the book on the table, "I don't think-"

"Quiet!" he snapped, and Rose fell silent. "Huntress, Herobrine is a monster. You told us yourself what he did. The only right thing we can do is kill him."

Now _I _was fed up with him. I stood abruptly.

"We can't kill him!" I said with enough force that everyone at the table fell dead silent. "I've tried already. Twice. I tried to stop him at the village. I tried to save Dragon from him. But you don't seem to realize how powerful he is, do you, Wolf? Because he killed me instead. TWICE." I glared daggers at Wolf, and he sank back a little in his seat.

I wasn't done.

"I know you don't think I was duped. You suspect I was playing the traitor, don't you? Well, I'll tell you that I was the one risking life and limb out there, Wolf. I'm the one that's seen everything firsthand, while you were cowering in your haven Notch-knows-where. I don't blame you for hiding, but if you're going to accuse me like this, you'd damn well better be doing _something_ more than hiding in a hole. I was the one that tried to work out the truth of this whole mess. I was the one that faced Herobrine head-on. I went to the Nether, and _I was the one that got Dragon out._ If Dragon can trust my judgement on this matter, why can't you? Tell me."

Wolf was silent.

"Tell me!" I shouted, but then my voice was cut off in a sudden burst of agony. Pain lanced from my sternum and traveled down my arms, leaving a dense numbness in its wake, my fingertips tingling unpleasantly. I doubled over with a choking sound, wrapping one rubbery arm around my chest while Dawn helped me sit back down without falling over. Everyone was staring grimly at me now.

I stared back, meeting everyone's gaze in turn. Surely they were shocked. I never raised my voice, not unless it was something important. I was the one that never shouted, never cried, and never gave up. It was rare that anyone had to see me like this. I took a tiny sip of cool water from my cup, and the pain in my chest eased a little. I massaged the area around the scar absently, willing the pain away.

"Herobrine's sword." I explained. "It's cursed. When he kills you with it, it leaves a mark. The scar flares up every so often."

Rose reached over and refilled my water from the pitcher. "So what do we do now?"

"We keep our promise..." I began, but trailed off as a small sound caught my attention.

Was that an Enderman?

"What is it?" Sky asked, but I held up a finger, turning my head back and forth, trying to locate the sound.

There. The distinctive warbles and chittering of the Endermen could not be mistaken. I heard everyone around me gasp, and I knew my eyes were beginning to change.

"Don't move," I snapped, when Wolf jerked back. "It's still me here. You want to know why Herobrine's eyes are white?" I didn't wait for them to answer. "According to the _Chronicles,_ he was tortured into what he is. From what he's told me, there's a connection between that effect and anything from the End. When Endermen are near, for example, my eyes change."

Dragon blinked, realizing what was happening right now. "Which means-"

"We have company." I finished, right when the first Enderman teleported into the room.

With a yell, Dragon leaped to his feet and threw his chair at the thing. He was fast enough to catch it by surprise, sending it crashing into the wall behind him. By then, the rest of us were up and ready to fight. I had _Firefall_ in hand, ready to gut anything that came to close.

I had a healthy distrust of Endermen by now.

In moments, we were engaged in battle against four Enderman, all four creatures baring their teeth and using their long reach well.

Then I noticed a fifth one outside the door, and realized it was moving away.

"Dibs on the runner!" I shouted, fleeing out the door just as the creature was about to teleport. By some miracle, I caught up to it just in time. I caught the creature in a bear hug right when it teleported away. For a moment, everything was exploding with purple sparks, and then it all fell black. A split second later, we touched down on the ground in the middle of the Temple village ruins, my added weight forcing the Enderman to its knees.

To my amazement and horror, the Enderman turned its head _all the way around _to face me and begin its ear-rattling war cry. Shocked, I accidentally loosened my grip, and it was able to throw me off and escape. The wind was knocked out of me as I flew up into the air and fell flat on my back. When I recovered my senses, I saw the Enderman teleport off into the distance.

"Oh, no you don't," I muttered, scrambling to my feet and chasing after the violet-eyed being.

When I had the creature in view again, I stopped running madly and hid myself behind a corner. It had started walking rather than teleporting, and was moving purposefully towards something on the other end of the ruins. I snuck after it down the uneven street, until we came to a brightly illuminated square.

I peeked around the remains of a house and saw, to my amazement, the bright star-filled portal blocks of an End Portal. A new one. I gasped when I saw it, but unfortunately, the Enderman heard me. His head whipped around to regard me, who was too stupefied to act. Then it flew towards the portal. Realizing I had not a moment to lose, I chased after it desperately, _Firefall _out and ready.

Just my luck, the Enderman made it there first. It stepped onto the portal and vanished, leaving me to skid to a stop and wheel my arms in a frantic attempt to save myself from falling in. Regaining my balance, I took a long step backwards away from the portal and thanked my lucky stars that I hadn't tumbled in. I sheathed _Firefall._

Slightly miffed that I hadn't managed to catch my quarry, I knelt down at the edge of the portal and studied it more carefully. It was definitely brand new- Dragon and I had come through here on our way to the Temple of Notch. But how did it get here? Herobrine certainly didn't make it- and I thought he was the only one who could.

Something caught my eye on the outside rim of the circular portal. The edge of the portal was blackened, almost corrupted. The Eyes of Ender were darkened, their glassy surfaces barely reflecting any light. The circle of stars was the same, like the sky caught in water, but the portal exuded something wrong. Something... evil.

Something occurred to me suddenly. There was a Stronghold near the Temple of Herobrine- I had already seen it and was pretty sure that this rune was not on it. Wasn't it? I decided to go check.

Minutes later, I was on the staircase leading down to the Stronghold. Cautiously, I descended the stairs until the portal was right below my feet. Running my hands along the outer rim, I found that the entire thing was smooth and free of markings. The eyes of Ender were softly glowing with the rest of the portal, and the rim was uncharred.

Walking back up the mountain path to the Temple, I went over and over in my head what this meant. I told Dragon about it briefly and discussed with him what to do next, before going to my room to write as much as I could before I fell asleep.

Now I'll be planning out our trip. We've got some work to do, but one thing's for certain: We're going to the End. I think the others are finally as convinced as I am that this is the best course of action. If anything, it'll rule out a possibility, but considering the attack last night, I think we will find what we're looking for there. I just hope we're ready for it.

I'll write more later when there's more to write.

* * *

**Amanda the Huntress here.**

**Wow, what a crazy summer it's been. I haven't even been home for, what, six weeks? Now I'm home and writing again, and I hope I'm not tired enough to make too many typos. **

**Well, there's not much to say without giving spoilers. If you enjoyed this chapter, let me know with a review, and if you want more where this came from, leave a favorite or a follow so you never miss out on my (highly unpredictable) updates. **

**That's all for now. I'll see you next chapter.**

**Huntress out. **


	14. Entry Fourteen

**Date: 10181, forty-third day of summer**

**The Temple of Notch**

**In my room, making last-minute preparations**

We go to the End today.

Yesterday we were very busy, making preparations and arguing over different plans, and I didn't get to bed until late. A few hours ago, my insomnia got the better of me and I started pacing around the temple, and now I'm back, writing while I wait for sunrise.

Funny how this happens every time something comes up. I lose sleep over everything these days.

I spent most of yesterday morning closed in my room writing this journal and working things out on paper up until Dragon knocked and poked his head in the doorway with a tray of breakfast in his arms.

He took one look at the scatter of papers on my desk and lost his smile.

"You're serious about this, aren't you?" he asked, handing me a plate of bread and sliced apples. I stick my quill in the inkwell and sighed, wiping the ink off my fingers and picking up a slice of bread.

"I keep my word," I replied, scanning over my work so far. Lists of things we might need, what sort of terrain we might face, the signs to look out for according to Herobrine. My journal was open to the entry from the day before. Last night, when I was trying to focus strictly on the End mission, I was distracted by what Herobrine had told me when I asked him why he thought he wouldn't survive another reign of terror.

He told me, quite frankly, quite coldly, that Notch would put an end to him before he allowed that.

It still chills me that he could love his brother so, and still expect this. Still fear him like that.

Or perhaps, to trust him like that. If I suddenly lost control of my mind and powers...

Okay, I can empathize. If I were a thrall like that, I would rather someone destroy me for good before I ever harmed my friends. It just shakes me to think of myself in Herobrine's position, if he's to be believed to his word. He's fighting to free himself from what made him a monster those thousands of years ago. If he fails, he will be at the mercy of the madness. If he succeeds, he will be at the mercy of his brother. The very brother that will, as he said, put an end to him if it so pleases him.

_Ouch._

Anyway, once I ate enough to stop my hands from shaking (I hadn't realized how late in the morning it was. I was starving.), I turned to Dragon and asked him what it was like when Herobrine took him to the Nether.

Dragon blinked at me and just stared for a moment. This wasn't something I had asked him before.

"I was caught off guard," he answered at last. "Those zombie pig creatures came pouring out of the Nether portal, and I didn't expect it at all. But then there was this explosion. It threw me across the square and took out my armor just like that. When my eyes cleared, everything was netherrack and soul sand. The street under the portal had been melted to lava, and before it had even cooled, while it was still red and glowing a little, Herobrine walked out. He was barefoot, and his clothes were half-shredded. When he came out, he was stumbling, leaning on the portal for support. I didn't realize who he was at the time, so I went to him, trying to help. Then he looked up at me."

Dragon paused, taking a bite out of his apple. "There isn't much else to tell. He pulled a sword out of nowhere and knocked mine away, and grabbed me by the shirt and threw me into the Nether. Then the portal closed behind me, and he showed up a few days later. He didn't talk to me at all, just stared at me with a serious look on his face and paced around. The guards weren't nice, though, but you would know that. You were there, too."

I smile, remembering the skeletons that brought us food and occasionally just rattled the bars of our cells to frighten us. "Yeah. I remember."

Dragon cocked his head at me, slicing off a bit of his apple and tossing it at me. I caught it and took a bite. "Why do you ask, Huntress? Why now?" he asked.

I leaned back in my seat. "I'm trying to work out a few things. Herobrine, obviously, and how much of what he says I can trust. I don't want to trust him, but at this point, he's making sense. And I just really wanted to know."

Dragon laughed mirthlessly. "No you didn't. You're not a sadist."

I turned to him, putting down my breakfast. "I spent weeks dying to know what was happening to you after what Herobrine said to me. I needed to know what you really went through."

Dragon stopped laughing, releasing a breath while shaking his head. "I'm sorry. I just thought-"

"It's okay," I interrupted. When he looked at me, his eyes had an indecipherable light to them. "Really, it's okay."

He nodded slowly, looking away. "So, what do you have so far?"

"On planning for the End, or on Herobrine's character?"

"Well, now that you mention it, both. I'd like to hear that," Dragon replied. I throw an apple slice back at him.

"You should have brought more food," I shot back. "We'll be here all day."

"Do you hear me complaining?"

I almost gave him a witty response, but refrained from it. Our conversation was getting a little too close to flirtatious, and after what happened a few nights ago...

Anyway.

"Herobrine is the brother of Notch," I began. "He's one of the two creators, and he's the one responsible for creating anything living. His strong suits, according to the Chronicles and from what I've seen, are the subtle things. He likes making harmony, and setting off long chain reactions for what he wants. He'll make a little push in one place for a big result elsewhere. When he went mad, he kept that. The Chronicles make it all to clear how skilled he was in destabilizing entire countries at a time. There was one country called Arrenvale where he attacked the capital castle and killed everyone inside in one night. The king and queen and all the greatest officials and warriors were there. Arrenvale fell the next morning into desolation."

Dragon raised his eyebrows and gestured for me to continue.

"He's also proud. It's strange to describe. He's not proud of his power, and not what he did with it when he was mad, but now I know what he's going through, and he's too proud to let weakness show."

"Not bad," Dragon judged. "I got that feeling, too. I saw him fight. That can reveal things about someone. Now, this is bothering you, isn't it?"

I stopped and stared. He smiled at me. "It's the leader in you."

"I thought you were the man in charge," I rebutted.

"Not like this, I'm not," he replied. "I keep us out of trouble. I'm useless when we're neck deep in it. That's your job."

"You think so?" I asked, smiling a little. Dragon nodded, studying my face.

"I know so. You had the guts to dive after me to the Nether, after all. You went head-to-head with Herobrine. Twice. The rest of us haven't done anything close."

"Thanks, Dragon," I said, meaning it. Put it that way, and I sounded like someone with real courage, not the way I felt right now. Not stuck between gut feeling and the opinions of friends, and between the impossible and a promise I made. It wasn't courage that brought me to the Nether, it was the need to know what was going on, and to find Dragon. The fact that I was in the Nether was purely a mistake, but I didn't point that out to Dragon.

"What now?" Dragon asked. I looked up from my journal, broken out of my thoughts.

"We need to gather everyone," I replied. "All of us need to discuss this."

* * *

Dragon got everyone together in the common room while I paced in the hall, going over in my head what I had decided with Dragon.

We needed to establish two things: The plan of action in the End, with who would go with me, how we would get back, and the plan of action for who would remain, watching for any sign Herobrine was going back on his word. I got the distinct feeling he wouldn't, after all I had seen, but some of the others, one in particular, weren't so sure.

I know even as I write this that trouble is brewing among us. Wolf is bitter about something, but I have no idea what. The way he's looked at me, as if he's accusing me of something...

I'm glad we're leaving Rose behind with him. She'll be a good influence on him if nothing else helps.

When I was ready, I pushed open the door to the common and came in, finding everyone seated around the fireplace. Dragon looked up from where he sat leafing through a book and beckoned me over. Closing the book, he set it aside and sat up a little straighter, clearing his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Any news?" Dawn asked, perking up immediately. Sky and Lee looked up as well, ending their conversation.

I took a seat next to Dragon. "I have what I need planned out. We just need to take care of a few things. Because I'm the one who made this wager, I'm going to the End."

"I'm coming with you," Dragon immediately added. I nodded.

"Of course. We just need one other with us, and for those of you staying here, we need to plan out what to do if Herobrine double-crosses us."

Wolf nodded grimly. "I can take care of that," he said.

"Good," I replied. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'm going to stay stationed here. One other can rotate with me patrolling to Dragon's old city where that portal is, and two others can circle around the territory surrounding the Temple, watching for trouble at our homes."

I nodded. It sounded solid enough. "Be careful of more attacks by Endermen. There's a new portal in the village ruins below the mountain. Watch it for any more activity."

Rose spoke up next. "Of course we will. I'll stay here to help."

I smiled. "Thanks, Rose. So- Sky, Lee, you two will be staying as well. You work better together."

The two nodded, and for once, they had nothing to say. That just goes to show how shaken we all were by all this.

Dawn looked up, instantly putting two and two together. "That leaves me. When do we go?"

"Tomorrow morning," Dragon answered. "You'll need to pack before then. I was thinking a basic exploration kit, but since this is a dimension we've never encountered before, we may need to make a few additions."

"Yes, we will," I said. "Bring ranged weapons and your better sword and armor, but we're trying not to draw attention to ourselves. We're going to a world full of Endermen, so remember what you know about fighting them. Potions for health and speed. Ladders and a pickaxe in case we need to get out of a tight place on bad terrain. Plenty of provisions. Ender pearls for a quick getaway. Oh, and Sky-"

Sky looked up. "Yeah?"

"We're going to need a command block and a few redstone torches. Do you have any with you?"

"Yep. Come by my room when you need them."

"Excellent." I turned back to Dawn. "Are you sure you want to come with us?"

Dawn laughed a little. "Of course I do, Huntress. You couldn't keep me here if you tried."

I nodded. That made it final. "Okay, go pack. I'll tell you what you're looking for when you're ready."

* * *

The sun is coming up now at last, and my torch is burning down. We'll be going in an hour or so.

Herobrine, you had better sit tight in the Nether. I still have my reservations about you. Whatever we find in the End will determine whether or not I really believe you from this point on. I still haven't forgiven you for what you did at the village.

But I'm trying to be optimistic... sort of. The _Chronicles _back you up, at least, and so did the attack of the Endermen. And that confession.

Even so, I'm worried. What will we find when we go today? What if we really do find something mighty enough to overpower a creator god? What if there really is something out there worse than Herobrine at the height of his madness?

I have to admit it- I'm scared to find out.

It's time to leave. Everything is packed, and I'm ready to go, sword at my side and command block ready to take us all home at the first sign of real trouble.

By my reckoning, the wager was made on the thirty-third day of summer, and we were released from the Nether two days later. We have twenty days left to find the truth. Whether Herobrine is telling the truth or not, we're keeping our side of the bargain, and we're prepared for the worst. Wolf may not trust me very much now, but I trust him to keep the Overworld safe if anything happens to the three of us in the End. That's all that matters now.

As soon as the ink dries on this page, I'll close up my journal and pack it away. When we get to the End, I'll record everything the first chance I find.

Notch protect us on our journey.

It's time to go.

* * *

**Amanda the Huntress here.**

**It's been a long time, I know. I'm forever guilty of eternal procrastination and putting my readers into the purgatory of hiatus all to often.**

**I'm back, and now the news is I have graduated high school with flying colors, finished the first draft of my _actual novel how awesome is that _and hope to someday soon be published in print. The book is done. I just have to convince someone to buy the print rights to it. **

**Anyway.**

**I hope you enjoyed this story so far. As per usual, my former A Minecraft Tale  readers, hush. I know what's coming and so do you, but my precious little cinnamon buns known as the "new readers" don't, and spoilers will not be appreciated by anyone. **

**Also, watch for my update on Chronicle coming soon, and enjoy the new teaser for "Legacy" that I published yesterday. **

**Catch me again soon now that I have my summer open to write.**

**Huntress out. **


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